Biomedical Services
Last year, 3.8 million volunteers gave more than 6 million pints of blood through the American Red Cross. Using this precious gift, the Red Cross annually supplies some 3,000 hospitals with about half of the blood used in the United States. These blood and blood components are used in emergency surgeries, in the treatment of cancer patients and people with blood disorders and in many other lifesaving treatments that benefit countless patients across the country. Our top priority is the safety and availability of the blood supply. Please help us save lives by making an appointment to give blood today. Call 330-264-9383 or 1-800-GIVE LIFE to find the next scheduled blood mobile.
Donated blood and blood components are used to treat patients suffering from illnesses such as sickle cell disease, anemia, organ failure and cancers. The American Red Cross makes a variety of lifesaving biomedical products available to patients across the country - plasma used to treat burn patients, platelets used to treat cancer patients, clotting proteins to treat people with hemophilia and donated tissue for transplants - and is conducting research on umbilical cord blood to reproduce new blood cells. We also conduct research at our Jerome H. Holland Laboratory for the Biomedical Sciences, which studies new applications for blood, blood products and other biomedical areas.
To learn more about our biomedical work, please visit www.redcross.org/services/biomed.
|
|
| Type O is the most common blood type, but also the most used. Type O blood is considered the "universal" blood type. |
During the fiscal year 2006/2007, 11,756 productive donors - approximately 11% of the population in Wayne County - donated blood. Over the past five years, 56,234 people donated blood - potentially helping over 168,700 patients in our two area hospitals (Wooster Community and Dunlap Memorial Hospitals), and all of the hospitals in northeast Ohio.
The American Red Cross Chapter bloodmobiles (held the second and fourth Saturdays each month) collect the most blood than any other Red Cross facility in our region. The Chapter has received awards at three of the past four Annual Meetings in Cleveland for this accomplishment. Wayne County is a participating Chapter to the Northern Ohio Regional Blood Services located in Cleveland. Although many of the bloodmobile staff live in Wayne County the vehicles, equipment, and supplies originate from the Regional Blood Center on Euclid Avenue. Following each collection drive the blood is returned to Cleveland where the blood is tested, stored, and distributed from. Our Regional Blood Center is the seventh largest blood region in the Red Cross System.
For additional information and to schedule an Autologous Donation contact the Special Donations Office at (216) 431-3010.