We in donor recruitment always are hearing from our counterparts on the other side of hospital services. The demand for blood has not ceased, or has not let up, believe it or not. In my twenty five years here, we always hear the drum beat that we need more, we need more, but in actuality, it's a true fact. We, in the Carolinas blood services region, which we're a part of here, we need to collect about sixteen hundred units a day, just to keep up with hospital demand which is directly related to patient need. If we don't have those sixteen hundred units coming in, that means tomorrow we need seventeen hundred, or eighteen hundred, or two thousand, because we've got to keep the ball rolling to make sure we've got the blood on hand that's needed by our hospitals. Because if our hospitals don't have it when they need it, they're not going to need it when we get it. Think about that. You think all the time, or you hear a lot of the time people saying, "Well, I'll wait and give when it?s an emergency", or, "I'll wait and give when my brother needs it", or "I'll wait and give it when my parents need it". Think about, think back to some tragedies that's happened to this country, and what would have happened if blood had not been on the shelf at that moment. It wouldn't have been there. A lot of people don't realize, once you give blood, it takes about forty eight hours to have it ready to go to the patient. So if you wait until it's needed, what's happened? You've waited too long. So make sure you're coming in and donate every time you're eligible if possible, or right after that, or when you think about it, or for a relatives birthday, or something, to make sure you're helping fulfill that need that's always there. And meeting the needs of our over one hundred hospitals in just this region that we deal with here locally, but the need is always there and it should always been on your mind to be giving blood whenever you're eligible. If you have any more questions, please feel free to call 1-800-GIVELIFE, or check our web page at RedCrossBlood.org.
