© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Need For Blood Increases As Pandemic Wanes

A screenshot of an American Red Cross blood donation site
American Red Cross

As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, the American Red Cross is seeing an increased need for blood donations. WAMC's Jim Levulis spoke with Susan Sommer, an account manager for the organization’s Eastern New York chapter, about what’s driving the demand.

Sommer: We're actually collecting as we normally do during the summer. But over the last three months, as people have been getting vaccinated and they're out doing things again, we've come upon a very large need for more blood than ever before. In the last three months, we've been asked to provide 75,000 more units than normal, because people are getting back into their regular lives, they're having elective surgeries, doctors are performing a lot of transplants, and people are getting treatments that were held off during COVID because of people being afraid to go into hospitals and that kind of thing. So it's not that we're not collecting enough for normal use. It's that since people are going back to normal, which is an awesome thing, it's that the need for blood has just skyrocketed.

Levulis: And what are the efforts underway to increase donations to meet that demand then?

Sommer: Well, thankfully, for partners like you, we're getting the word out to people. We have blood drives all over the region, people can just go to redcrossblood.org, put in their zip code, they can find a blood drive to make an appointment at to donate blood. We're also right now through the rest of July offering a $10 Amazon gift card via email to everyone that comes out to donate. And we have another program sponsored by Suburban Propane, where we're giving three packages away for a year's worth of free gas. And that's about a $5,000 value. So we're hoping that those, along with people just realizing that we need the blood coming out to make that extra effort to put up their sleeve and donate some blood.

Levulis: And I also understand that you have a personal story as it relates to blood donation, is that right?

Sommer: Right. So about 40 years ago, the week I graduated college, I was in a very bad sport accident, and my leg was crushed. And despite all the best efforts at the hospital where I had gone to college, they were planning to amputate my leg. But I'm from Northern Vermont where there's a lot of ski accidents. So I had them pack me up and I went back to see if there was anything that could be done there. And there was actually an orthopedic surgeon experimenting with a new procedure. So he spent eight hours in the emergency room with me and my leg and eight units of blood that was generously donated by other people. And without those eight units of blood, I would be walking with a prosthesis now instead of my own very good leg that works just fine now. So I'm really grateful to those donors who had that blood ready for when I needed that surgery.

Levulis: Absolutely. We're happy to hear that happy to hear you're doing well, especially all these years later. Did that at all lead you to your work now?

Sommer: It did. I have always been a blood donor since college all the way up to now. I only started really working more in this field after my children got out of school. But I've been with the Red Cross since then. And I love it. I love meeting the donors, the people who are hosting the blood drives, and everyone else associated with it. It's a great feeling. And I got to tell you, there's people that are doing amazing things, helping support this life-saving mission. And they're just so generous and selfless in helping others, especially people they don't even know.

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
Related Content