Blood
Vitalant calls for community support as Borderland blood donations see holiday slump
Nov
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — Given that travel and family plans disrupt regular routines during the holidays, blood donations tend to be at their lowest around this time.
However, that doesn’t mean the demand for blood is any different.
According to David Veloz, senior director of recruitment at Vitalant, on average roughly 130 blood donations are needed every day to meet the needs of local patients.
It’s very, very important that people do donate, especially around this time,” said Veloz. “This is about the well-being of our community, this is about having a healthy blood supply.
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The Food and Drug Administration recently updated eligible donor criteria, so Veloz said that those who were once considered ineligible should visit vitalant.org and that they would be “pleasantly surprised.”
Some of those changes are now focused on donor behavior, and as a result, it’s opened up the possibility of more people donating blood,” said Veloz.
Additionally, Veloz said that while there’s always an urgent and ongoing need for every blood type, type O blood is particularly critical as it is most frequently used to help patients.
For instance, type O is vital for treating infants and in emergencies.
Likewise, O-negative can be used universally to help patients of any blood type while O-positive can be used for any patient with a positive blood type.
To incentivize people to make blood donations a lifestyle staple, Vitalant offers a rewards program that offers donors points for every donation visit, which can be redeemed for e-gift cards and other items.
Vitalant operates three donation clinics in the Borderland, including both east and west El Paso, as well as in Las Cruces.
To make an appointment visit vitalant.org, use the Vitalant app or call 877-25-VITAL (84825).
Come out and donate blood. Again, we really do need your support,” said Veloz
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