Blood donation - some facts

• In the developed world, most blood donors are unpaid volunteers who give blood for a community supply.
• A donor can also have blood drawn for their own future use.
• More than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day in the United States.
• One out of every seven people admitted in a hospital needs blood.
• In the U.S. donors must wait 8 weeks between whole blood donations.
• A directed donation is when a person, often a family member, donates blood for transfusion to a specific individual.
• The blood type most often requested by hospitals is Type O
• One pint of blood can save up to three lives.
• A single car accident victim can require as many as one-hundred units of blood.
• The demand for blood transfusions is growing faster than donations
• Less than 38% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood.
• One year: how long frozen plasma can be stored.
• The American Red Cross supplies approximately 45% of the nation's blood supply.
• 43,000 pints: amount of donated blood used each day in the United States and Canada.