A series of vehicle crashes across the region over the holiday weekend has taken a toll on the Community Blood Center’s local blood reserve.
The CBC supplies blood to hospitals in northern and eastern Wisconsin as well as parts of the U.P. and northern Illinois.
CEO John Hagins says the hospitals they serve used more than 200 blood products solely because of those car accidents.
On top of that, donations in general typically drop during the summer months.
“Right now, we are at an urgent level where our blood reserves are desperately low,” said Hagins.
It’s not just an increase in accidents locally that can drive up the need for blood.
Hagins says everything that happens in the US has an impact on the blood supply.
“Blood is a resource that is shared. We meet all the local needs first, and then, if we have access at that point in time, we use it to help our neighbors that are in need at the same time,” said Hagins. “Nothing ever goes to waste when you donate blood with the Community Blood Center. Either it's meeting the need of a local patient, and once those needs are all fulfilled, then we offer it to other places to make sure that no patient goes without a blood transfusion.”
The CBC is urging people to schedule an appointment to donate now.
There are donor centers in Woodruff, Rhinelander, and Merrill as well as mobile drives across the area. You can find a location and make an appointment at communityblood.org.
“With all the medical advances and scientific advances, there still is no substitute for blood. It has to come from one person to go to another,” said Hagins. “It will be someone that they will never even know, but it could be your mother, your father, your child, your brother or sister, your neighbor.”
Nationwide, someone needs a blood transfusion every three seconds.
