An endless stream of University of Memphis students and faculty braved the needle Monday in response to the widespread call for blood donations.
The blood drive, which was conducted by Lifeblood and held in the Student Activities Council’s room at the University Center, procured an estimated 127 pints of blood.
Since the tragic events on Sept. 11, Dick Benson, community affairs representative for Lifeblood, said it seems everyone is willing to “pitch in” and help in any way possible.
“Since Tuesday, nearly everyone in the Memphis area has called and asked what they can do to help,” Benson said.
While little or no blood donated yesterday will be sent to New York or Washington D.C., Benson said the donations will greatly benefit this region.
“This is one of the few regions in the nation that do not have adequate blood supplies on a regular basis,” Benson said.
Benson said the continuous blood shortages in the region have been a source for concern for quite some time.
“Memphis has the ninth largest number of medical facilities in the nation, and we have consistently struggled to keep up with the demand for blood,” Benson said. “We just never have enough donors.”
However, since last Tuesday, Memphis area residents have nearly filled every blood bank in the city to capacity.
Benson said that up until the attack earlier this month, current blood donations had only marginally increased from previous years.
“We generally need about 100,000 pints of blood every year to maintain the area hospital’s needs,” Benson said. “We usually only receive about 65,000 pints and have to look to other cities to help us out.”
Benson said the first city Memphis usually looks to for blood in the time of need is New York, and it seems Memphis was more than willing to return the favor.
Currently, Lifeblood is actually requesting that donors make an appointment, because the blood supply has reached peak levels. But, Benson added, the supply will quickly diminish.
“We could only hope to maintain this level of support and donations from the community,” Benson said. With the tremendous and immediate public response of blood donations from the following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Benson said it quickly dawned on them that they may actually have more blood than they may need.
However, Benson assured that the blood collected, which only has a shelf life of six weeks, will all be used.
“We break some of the blood down to extract the plasma and platelets for those who need it,” said Benson.
In comparison, this year’s blood drive at The U of M has shown a drastic upswing in support from previous years.
“In the first two hours, we had about 50 donors come in,” Benson said. “Last year we had 25 donors all day.”
While the blood banks are hovering at or above peak levels, Lifeblood has issued an urgent appeal for type O-positive and O-negative blood.
“Each day the supply will rapidly decrease, and we hope that everyone will continue to show the same desire to help others as in the previous weeks,” Benson said.
