American Red Cross officials are reporting the lowest blood donation numbers in 20 years.
Officials say they have declared an emergency due to a critical shortage of blood.
According to the Southwest Indiana Chapter Executive Director Beth Sweeney, donation centers and blood drives took in 7,000 fewer units than usual over the period from Christmas to New Years.
Sweeney says this decline has been happening for a while, with donor numbers dropping steadily by more than 40% over the last two decades.
Joe Newton has been giving blood for ten years. He says he didn’t realize how important his donations were until it was his uncle who needed saving.
‘He had to have an emergency blood transfusion, and it saved his life,” he said.
Now, Newton is one of the area’s top donors.
“I was going inconsistently at first,” he said. “Once that happened, I really tried to hammer out going every time I could.”
Leave a Reply