Fire department holds 56th blood drive to benefit Cape Fear Valley Health
Fayetteville ObserverAug 15, 2021
Aug. 14—The Beaver Dam Volunteer Fire Department will hold its 56th blood drive for the
For 16 years, the fire department has hosted drives for the blood center, according to
The center, which supplies blood to
"The pandemic affected us because our high schools, colleges and our corporate partners provided about 60% of our blood supply, (of) the remaining 40%, about 20% came from our own
Community-organized blood drives like this are important when there's a short supply of blood, she said.
"The importance for these community-based blood drives is to keep a safe adequate supply of blood for our community because we do serve four counties," she said. "We don't sell or outsource our blood to anybody, it stays right here to save maybe you, your neighbor, your friends, your family members. That's why it's important to keep that right here locally."
The blood drive averages about 30 units of blood per blood drive.
According to Carter, that amount of blood could be used to help many people.
"Thirty units of blood can potentially save 90 people," she said. "On one end of the scale, one unit of blood can be separated into a bag of red cells, a bag of platelets and a bag of plasma, and we'd give it to three different patients. On the other end of the scale, 30 units can be used to save one person's life that was in a car accident or a shooting."
Carter added that the shortage needs to be addressed in case of emergencies.
"When you have an emergency type of situations and stuff — like hurricane season is coming up ... if we didn't have a full supply of blood on our shelves we would have to reach to other blood banks, who are also facing these shortages because these shortages are nationwide," she said.
According to Carter, the blood donor center also has a blood assurance plan where a donor can build blood credits when they donate there. If that individual is admitted to the
Staff writer
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