Hoxworth Blood Center will be holding a blood drive honoring first responders on Wednesday, June 23.
Alecia Lipton, Hoxworth director of public relations, said one of the center’s donor buses for the blood drive will be parked at 123 N. High St. in Hillsboro in front of the former fire department from 1-7 p.m. She said the Hoxworth Blood Center provides blood products to over 30 tristate hospitals, an area including 18 counties.
Lipton said the organization anticipates around 40 people will come to the event. She said that during COVID-19, the center limited the number of donors as well as stopping walk-ins temporarily. Following the lifting of health guidelines, Lipton said walk-ins have been reintroduced, but that she still recommends appointments so people can get in and out in the time frame best for them. She also said all blood types are welcome.
Lipton said that there is currently a national blood shortage and “Ohio is not immune to that.” She said the summer months are important for blood drives because the center typically sees donation decreases because people are out of their routine. She also said it’s because there is an increase in usage in the summer. She the reasons for that are vacationing, motor vehicle accidents and people possibly putting off surgery during winter months and having it during the summer.
“There’s not many things we can do in our daily life where at the end of the day we can say, ‘Wow, I really made a difference. I really helped to save somebody’s life.’ And donating blood is one of those things,” Lipton said. “Some people are afraid of what the pain might be like, and the pain is minuscule. You’ll feel just a very small pinprick when it’s going in, so it’s not going to last throughout the donation process. The human body has enough that typically, if you’re healthy, then you have a pint of blood that you can spare.”
Lipton said that depending on one donation, it can be divided into three different components, which could possibly help three different people.
“One person could get the whole blood, another person could get platelets and then a third person could get the plasma, or it could all be going to one individual patient,” she said.
Lipton said if someone is nervous about giving blood, they should tell the people working at the blood drive when they come in and Hoxworth employees will walk them through the process.
“We would love to encourage anybody who already is a blood donor to give just one more time a year. So, if they already give once a year, if they would do twice, or if they do twice, if they would do three times. That would take away blood shortages. We would never have to talk about blood shortages if every eligible individual would donate just one more time.”
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
