This is a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood HEMA school: The American Red Cross declared a national blood shortage on September 11, 2023, stating its blood supply level had dropped by 25% in just a month. This is bad enough news on its own, but the Red Cross made another declaration on January 7 that blood donations have hit a 20 year low nationwide. The good news is that Warriors of Ash is stepping up to help! Several of our
members went to the Blood Connection’s mobile donation center in the Swannanoa Ingles parking lot this past Monday and all donated blood, and may take advantage of other mobile blood donation events in the near future.
One of our glorious warriors donating blood.
Blood is used in all sorts of medical procedures ranging from cancer treatments to addressing traumatic injuries, and can only be acquired from donors. It is also needed by someone in the United States every 2 seconds according to the American Red Cross. Adding more urgency still is the importance of donors with rare blood types like O-, who can donate to anyone but can only receive their own blood type. Donors with one of the rarest blood types, AB+, can receive any blood type but only donate to other AB+ recipients. However, AB+ is the universal donor for plasma, which in a nutshell is the liquid component of blood and is important for making sure the human body is circulating nutrients, removing waste, and recovering from injury. It’s all pretty complicated and there are whole books on the subject, but you can probably see now why a blood shortage is such a huge issue if you didn’t before.
One of our glorious warriors donating blood.
If you would like to give blood with WoA or on your own, organizations like The Blood Connection and American Red Cross are always holding blood drives and accepting donations. They give you free snacks (the highlight of any activity in my opinion), and the Blood Connection gives you points for gift cards to all sorts of stores when you donate. If those perks aren’t enough to strike your fancy, giving blood regularly has also been linked to lower blood pressure and decreased risk of heart attacks! And best of all, you’re saving lives. What’s more hard core and warrior-like than bloodletting and lifesaving? Go ahead and try to think of something, I’ll wait.
So pretty please, with a cherry on top, consider donating today or soon. If you want to set up an appointment to give blood, you can follow one of the links below:
American Red Cross:
The Blood Connection: