Freezing cold, cancellations worsen blood shortage

Cold temperatures during December caused the Red Cross to cancel several blood drives, making the organization fall short of the number of donations they hoped to see. (Photo courtesy Pixabay)

 

The American Red Cross is asking the public’s help in filling the organization’s blood donation needs during National Blood Donor Month.

Red Cross spokesperson Laura McGuire says due to unrelenting temperatures recently, the organization has had to cancel a number of its blood drives.

“If you look at the storm out East, we had about 150 blood drives forced to be cancelled, which resulted in about 5,000 blood and platelet donations going uncollected in the last four days,” McGuire said.

The Red Cross is in critical need of blood platelets, O negative, B negative, and AB blood. To find a list of blood drive locations for this month, visit redcrossblood.org.

This story was submitted to us by WJBC’s Patrick Baron.