North Jersey blood banks issue urgent call for donors
July 7, 2014 Last updated: Monday, July 7, 2014, 1:21 AM
By EMILY MASTERS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Blood banks in New Jersey are in critical need of donors this summer, especially now, right after the July Fourth weekend.
“The unfortunate reality is hospital patients don’t get to take a holiday. They still need transfusions,” said Anthony Tornetta, the external-communications manager for the American Red Cross Penn-Jersey Blood Services Region. “It is important that the community rallies around that and donates blood.”
Blood supplies traditionally dip to their lowest levels during the summer months and the winter holidays, when schools are closed and many people are on vacation.
But after harsh winter weather kept many potential donors away, this year’s summer shortage has been more sorely felt.
Community Blood Services, which serves 19 hospitals in New Jersey, has been running 4 percent behind in collections since January, said its community affairs director, Karen Ferriday. “We are definitely falling short of our goal” of 250 donations a day, she said.
Ferriday said blood banks see far fewer corporations and community organizations hosting drives over the summer and also face a decline in the number of donors visiting centers, as people take vacations or visit family.
“This is a nationwide shortage,” she said.
I never understood why people are expected to donate blood for free.
If you go to the hospital, you are charged excessive fees for everything from an aspirin to a Band-Aid.
Donors should get paid, and there would be no blood shortage.
(if you need a transfusion, the hospital, that good the blood for free from a donor will most certainly charge the patient!)
Years ago, blood donors were paid. The problem was, however, this incentivized the worst kind of donors in the form of junkies and other people low on life’s totem pole. The program was stopped because of this.