A prick in the arm, the feeling of blood being drained — and three lives saved. Approximately 6.8 million people in the United States (U.S.) go through this process per year, with a total of 13.6 million units of whole blood and red blood cells collected. However, this immense amount of blood is still not enough — the U.S. has been going through a blood crisis for the past 5-6 years. This crisis is only growing, making donating blood even more important than ever.
“We are in a very big blood crisis,” Navya Naik (11) said. “There’s not a big enough blood supply to accommodate everyone’s needs. Some people are getting blood, other people need to wait longer for their blood and there are different blood types so you have to make sure everyone [gets] the blood type that will help their body.”
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