LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Residents donating blood with the national blood shortage making headlines.
January is Ohio Blood Donor Awareness Month and Solvita Blood Center held their community blood drive today at Mercy Health-St. Rita's Medical Center. According to data, the United States is experiencing the lowest number of people giving blood in the last 20 years. Every 2 seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood but only about 3% of the U.S. population is donating blood. With blood in such short supply, Solvita is happy to see locals giving the gift that keeps on giving with blood donations and helping fight the blood shortage. Solvita PR manager Mark Pompilio sees multiple reasons why there is a shortage but one in particular stands out.
"The pandemic definitely influenced high school blood drives, and kind of knocked away almost a generation of donors because they, there's young people who never ended up donating in high school during the pandemic. 16 to 18-year-old donors are down significantly and by our own metrics that we're seeing, at least a 17 % decline in high school blood drive participation. That's very troublesome because they may not have learned about donating in high school, and may not come back to it later in life which other kids tend to do," stated Mark Pompilio, Solvita Blood Center PR/marketing manager.
The blood drive had 37 total registered donors and collected 27 units of blood. The next blood drive for Solvita will be on March 22nd at St. Rita's at 10 a.m.
January 24, 2024 Press Release from Solvita Blood Center: LIMA, Ohio - Mercy Health-St. Rita's Medical Center hosted its first Solvita community blood drive of the New Year on Jan. 24 in the Physician and Café Conference room, and it came at a time of urgent need.
January is designated as Blood Donor Awareness Month across the nation and in Ohio due to the challenges that begin with the holiday season and the absence of high school blood drives and continues with the disruptions of winter weather and seasonal illness. The impact of these challenges has been ongoing for Solvita in January, with the blood supply currently in urgent need of multiple blood types.
Solvita is facing a critical shortage of type O positive and type B positive, plus low supply of type O negative, A negative, and B negative. Type O is the universal blood type and is in constant demand for emergency usage. Type B is less common in the population so after high usage there are fewer donors available to help replenish supply.
Wednesday’s blood drive totaled 37 donors and 27 donations, equaling its highest number of donors since May 2022. “This is my first time,” said Sara Heitmeyer, who works with St. Rita’s volunteers. “I just saw the email, so I signed up. It’s my first time with Solvita.”
Bonnie Miller, who works with pediatric outpatients, made her eighth donation with Solvita. “I’ve been donating for as long as you’ve been here,” said Bonnie. “It always seems to go so fast! I came after my early shift. It always goes so smoothly, and I’m done for the day.”
Solvita (formerly Community Blood Center) has supplied blood products to Mercy Health-St. Rita’s since 2022 and held its first blood drive at the hospital in February 2022. St. Rita’s continues to host Solvita blood drives every other month. The next St. Rita’s community blood drive will be March 22 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Solvita is approaching the end of January Blood Donor Awareness Month, but the challenges of Donor Month and the winter season continue into February. The urgently low supply of multiple blood types makes winter a crucial time to donate.
Schedule an appointment to donate with Solvita (formerly Community Blood Center) on the Donor Time app, by calling (937) 461-3220, or at www.donortime.com.
