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Blood Statistics
Usage:
--4.5 million Americans benefit from life-saving blood transfusions each year.
--40,000 pints are transfused each day in the United States.
--New York Blood Center alone requires over 2,000 volunteer blood donations each day to meet the transfusion needs of patients in close to 200 New York and New Jersey hospitals.
--Someone in this country needs a life-saving transfusion every 3 seconds.
--Transfusion recipients include cancer patients, accident, burn and trauma victims, newborn babies, transplant patients, mothers delivering babies, surgery patients, chronically transfused patients suffering from sickle cell disease or thalassemia, etc.
--Each donation of blood can help save 3 lives following component (red cell, platelet, plasma) separation.
--Much of today's sophisticated medical care ( transplants, heart surgeries, etc.) rely on blood transfusions.
--Car accident and trauma victims may need as many as 50 or more red cell transfusions.
--Severe burn victims may need as many as 20 platelet transfusions.
--Bone marrow transplants may require platelets from over 100 donors and red cells from over 20 people.
--Blood products are perishable.
* Donated red cells last only 42 days.
* Donated platelets last only 5 days.
* Plasma can be frozen for a year.
--The need for blood never takes a holiday.
Eligibility:
--Nearly everyone between the ages of 17 (16 with parents' written permission or consent) and 75 (people age 76 and older can donate if they meet all donor eligibility requirements and they present a doctor's written permission note), weighing a minimum of 110 pounds and in good health can donate blood. Donors over age 75 who are healthy and meet all other donor requirements simply require a doctor's written permission note to donate.
--60% of Americans are eligible to donate blood; yet on average only 5% of Americans donate blood.
--In the New York/New Jersey community, less than 2% of eligible people donate blood.
--People can safely donate blood every 8 weeks.
--People can safely donate platelets every 3 days or up to 24 times a year.
--Of New York Blood Center's approximate 450,000 donors, 8% self identify themselves as African-American, 11% self-identify themselves as Hispanic and 5% self identify themselves as Asian. But more donations from people of color are needed so New York Blood Center can better match its community's richly diverse population and the need for "precise match" transfusions.
How Blood Works:
--Red cells carry oxygen to the body's organs and tissues.
--Platelets act like band-aids to form clots and stop bleeding.
--Plasma is the liquid through which blood cells, proteins, enzymes, nutrients and hormones "swim".
--White cells, also called "leukocytes", are the body's primary defense against infection.
--The average person has between 8 to 12 pints of blood in their body and can easily spare one for donation.
--After donating, blood volume is replaced, or regenerated, within 24 hours. Red cells need 4 to 8 weeks for complete replacement.
--There is no substitute for human blood.
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BONE MARROW STATISTICS
--New York Blood Center's bone marrow registry program serves as a regional arm of the National Marrow Donor Program, which has enrolled over 7 million potential donors nationwide.
--New York Blood Center has registered over 220,000 potential bone marrow donors since its bone marrow registry program began in 1989.
--Over 800 of those registered by New York Blood Center have become bone marrow donors.
--New York Blood Center's single largest bone marrow registry group is from the Fire Department of New York. Over 10,000 firefighters are registered and more than 100 have been donors - and some have been donors twice and one has donated three times to three different patients.
--About 50% of all potential bone marrow donors registered by New York Blood Center are people of color. But in general more minorities need to enroll in bone marrow registries so those searching have the best chance to find a match.
--Each day about 3,000 patients worldwide with leukemia, aplastic anemia or other fatal blood diseases are searching for a life-saving bone marrow match.
--New York Blood Center receives over 10-15 new requests a day for potential donors to undergo additional testing in hopes of providing a perfect transplant match.
--Caucasians in need of a bone marrow transplant have as much as an 80% chance of finding a match through donor registries, but for minorities the percentage drops dramatically.
--Half of all New York Blood Center bone marrow drives are held in conjunction with community blood drives.
--The ideal bone marrow donor is between the ages of 25 to 40 and male. However, potential bone marrow donors can be between the ages of 18 to 60, male or female. Testing will determine if someone is healthy enough to be a bone marrow donor and also verify if a qualified match exists between donor and patient.
--Two types of donations can be needed - bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells. Each can work to save someone's life. New York Blood Center's collection sites for bone marrow include Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, New York Hospital, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Hackensack Medical Center, North Shore University Hospital, Stony Brook University Hospital and Westchester Medical Center. Peripheral blood stem cells are collected at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, New York Hospital, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Hackensack Medical Center, Stony Brook University Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson hospital.
--Sometimes bone marrow recipients and their donors can meet after one year if both parties agree. Until then, they can usually communicate anonymously if both choose to.
