Giv­ing blood is vitally impor­tant. You can save lives by offer­ing a lit­tle of yours to those who urgently need it. Find out more about why giv­ing blood is impor­tant, how and where to do it, and what you can expect from the process.

Why Donate Blood?

Accord­ing to the Amer­i­can Red Cross every two sec­onds some­one in the Unites States needs blood. How­ever, only 5% of the eli­gi­ble US pop­u­la­tion donates blood in any given year.

A blood dona­tion truly is a “gift of life” that a healthy indi­vid­ual can give to oth­ers in their com­mu­nity who are sick or injured. In one hour’s time, a per­son can donate one unit of blood that can be sep­a­rated into four indi­vid­ual com­po­nents that could help save mul­ti­ple lives.

From one unit of blood, red blood cells can be extracted for use in trauma or sur­gi­cal patients. Plasma, the liq­uid part of blood, is admin­is­tered to patients with clot­ting prob­lems. The third com­po­nent of blood, platelets, clot the blood when cuts or other open wounds occur, and are often used in can­cer and trans­plant patients. Cry­o­pre­cip­i­tated anti-hemophilic fac­tor (AHF) is also used for clot­ting factors.

In a recent study sup­ported by the National Blood Foun­da­tion (TRANSFUSION 2002;42:122S), more than 5,000 indi­vid­u­als who were cur­rent blood donors at the time or who had given blood in the past were asked why they donate blood. Nearly three-quarters of the respon­dents said that they give blood to help oth­ers. Respon­dents also said that giv­ing blood makes them feel good about them­selves; sup­ports their local com­mu­ni­ties and hos­pi­tals; sup­ports their com­mu­nity cul­ture; and “pays back” soci­ety for the times when they or their fam­i­lies have needed blood trans­fu­sions in the past.

For all of these rea­sons and more, donat­ing blood is a good idea.

Some Fre­quently Asked Questions:

Will donat­ing blood hurt?
You may feel a slight sting in the begin­ning last­ing only a cou­ple of sec­onds, but there should be no dis­com­fort dur­ing the donation.

How long will it take?
An aver­age visit to give blood takes around one hour.

Do I have enough blood in my body to donate?
Yes. The body con­tains 10 to 12 pints of blood. Your whole blood dona­tion is approx­i­mately one pint.

How long until my blood is used?
Most blood dona­tions are processed and avail­able for use within 48 hours.

Is there any­thing I should do before I donate?
Be sure to eat well at your reg­u­lar meal­times and drink plenty of fluids.

If I have a cold or the flu, can I donate blood?
In order to donate, blood cen­ters require that you be in gen­er­ally good health (symptom-free) and rec­om­mend that you are feel­ing well.

What can you do if you aren’t eli­gi­ble to donate?
While a given indi­vid­ual may be unable to donate, he or she may be able to recruit a suit­able donor. Blood banks are always in need of vol­un­teers to assist at blood draws or to orga­nize mobile blood dri­ves. In addi­tion, mon­e­tary dona­tions are always wel­come to help ensure that blood banks can con­tinue to pro­vide safe blood to those in need.

More Infor­ma­tion

Most of the infor­ma­tion above was taken from:

Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Blood Banks

- Help­ful sec­tions: Dona­tion Process | Com­plete FAQs

Other Resources:
Wikipedia — Blood Donation

If you coun­try isn’t listed here try this list — click here

Sources:
Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Blood Banks — aabb.org
Amer­i­can Red Cross — givelife.org
Wikipedia — Blood Dona­tion — wikipedia.org

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