Give blood San Diego
... impact. There is a current shortage of blood because people aren’t rolling up their sleeves to give on a regular basis. I feel this is because people don’t realize the extent of the need and are uninformed about how easy it is to donate. When I answered questions and cleared up any misconceptions I was able to convince my peers to do their part. When there are natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or major accidents, blood is priority distributed to help serve those with the greatest medical needs. According to Jeff Byers, an American Red Cross Representative, “getting more people to donate on a regular basis is difficult. When there's not a national disaster being replayed repeatedly on television, people don't realize the need” (Maraghy 1). Not only is there a blood shortage when there are major disasters, but also when donorship is down. This deficit can be easily improved to help San Diego and the country by donating now and regularly. When we are in a state of war, as is the case now with some troops still over seas, the military requests additional pints to serve those fighting for our country. This contributes to our shortage making the local problem here even worse. The effects of a blood shortage has an impact on all of us. Many people’s lives will not be able to be saved when they have a simple medical injury, or illness because there is not enough blood available. Then the dilemma of who will be saved and who will be left to die becomes the ultimate survivor episode. Who will make that decision? Will it be fair? Maybe that will become the reality event that will wake people up. Although medical advancements are being made daily around the world, many of them can’t be instituted unless there is blood available for patients before the procedures are performed. The number of hospital and small injury deaths could potentially skyrocket because of these shortages. Doctors are currently experimenting with ways to do bloodless surgeries, but this procedure is still in an infancy stage and may not be perfected for many years. “Using modern medicine and technology, doctors can perform many heroic and even miraculous feats, but they can’t as yet make blood. And to a body without red blood cells to carry oxygen, platelets to stop bleeding, white cells to fight infection, and plasma to transport them, those astonishing medical and technical feats are useless” (Lax). We need to do our part to help improve this situation. Donating is easy and takes less than 45 minutes. You must be at least 110 pounds, at least 17 years of age and in good health. Did you know that you can donate once every two months? That means that you are eligible to donate 6 pints of blood per year, which can save up to 18 people. The donation process starts with attending your local Red Cross facility, bloodmobile, or local drive. Then you fill out a short one page questionnaire about your health history. Next a nurse will give you a quick finger prick to test the amount of iron in your blood to determine if you’re eligible to donate. You will then be escorted by a volunteer to a donor chair and the donation will begin. The nurse will prick you in the arm quickly and will only draw a pint of blood. Many people don’t give because they are afraid that the needle will hurt, when in fact it only hurts for a second. The nurses are traine...