After the region’s bout with severe winter weather earlier this month, the American Red Cross is asking all eligible blood and platelet donors to help offset a weather-related shortfall in donations.
    About 300 blood drives across 25 states were canceled across the U.S. because of snow and extreme cold. The blood drive cancellations resulted in a shortfall of nearly 8,800 blood and platelet donations since Jan. 2. 
    “It’s the blood products already on the shelves that help save lives when severe weather hits,” said Jerry J.K. Tillery, the CEO of the Red Cross Southern, Alabama & Central Gulf Coast and Puerto Rico Blood Services Regions. “Thanks to generous Red Cross blood and platelet donors, blood products were available for patients who still needed transfusions despite the weather. Now we invite those previously ‘frozen out’ from giving blood or platelets to come in soon.”
    Platelet donors, as well as blood donors with the most in-demand blood types — O-positive and O-negative, A-negative and B-negative — are urgently needed to give blood in the days and weeks ahead to offset the shortfall.
Platelets, a key clotting component of blood often needed by cancer patients, must be transfused within five days of donation, so donations are constantly needed. Red blood cells, the oxygen-carrying component of blood, are the most widely transfused blood product and must be transfused within 42 days.
Locally, three blood drives will be held in the coming days:
Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Southeast Bulloch High School Junior ROTC classroom, Brooklet
Thursday from 12:30-5:30 p.m. at Mims Monroe Blood Center, Doctors Building, East Georgia Regional Medical Center
Thursday, Jan. 30 from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. at Mims Monroe Blood Center, Doctors Building, East Georgia Regional Medical Center
Call (800) RED CROSS (733-2767) or visit redcrossblood.org to make an appointment or for more information. A blood donor card or driver’s license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years old (16 with parental consent in some states), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.