This New Year’s, Resolve to Give the Gift of Life
January 1, 2025
Want 16 million reasons to give blood?
That 16 million is how many blood components are transfused each year in the U.S., and many of those transfusions are literally life-saving for the recipients. None of those transfusions occur without blood donors. Blood and platelets cannot be manufactured – they can only come from volunteer donors.
January is National Blood Donor Month, a recognition created more than 50 years ago to encourage donations to meet the demand for blood caused by accidents, surgeries, anemia, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and more.
According to the American Red Cross, every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood and/or platelets, and approximately 29,000 units of red blood cells, 5,000 units of platelets, and 6,500 units of plasma are needed daily in our country.
One car accident victim can require as many as 100 units of blood. And sometimes one donation – one single pint of blood – can help save more than one life.
Blood is a workhorse within the human body and essential to life. It transports oxygen and nutrients to the lungs and tissues, forms clots to prevent excess blood loss, carries cells and antibodies that fight infection, brings waste products to the kidneys and liver (which filter and clean the blood), and even helps regulate body temperature.
Blood is critical to so much of what we do in caring for our patients at Southwestern Medical Center. Transfusions are integral to healthcare, from surgeries to sickle cell, from chemotherapy to kidney disease. Much of the healing that occurs at our hospital and hospitals across the country is dependent upon ample supplies of blood.
So this January, when you might be fumbling through some of those lofty New Year’s resolutions, see if you can make and keep a simple one: donate blood. That 16 ounces of fluid, that 45 minutes or so of your time, that slight pinch on the inside of your elbow – could result in the greatest gift you’ve ever given in your life.