Last week’s snow storm has created a critical situation for Delmarva’s blood supply.
The local blood banks were closed last Thursday and Friday due to the snow, which meant donation appointments were cancelled. Did you know that 350 donations are need a day to support local hospitals? It’s time to step up and help out Delmarva!
The Blood Bank of Delmarva stopped by WBOC so that employees could donate blood. We check in with 102.5 WBOC’s Corey Phoebus to talk about the need for blood and what you can do to help.
Corey talks with Suzanne Murray, account executive for the Blood Bank of Delmarva, about the need for blood donations to meet the needs of the 16 hospitals they service on Delmarva. Suzanne says to make up for what they lost, they have doubled up appointments this week so that more people can schedule donation times.
Anybody 17 -years-old and older that weighs more than 110 lbs. is eligible to donate blood. They do offer you sweet cookies and drinks after you donate. Plus as Suzanne says, you get the good feeling of knowing you can save someone’s life by donating.
Suzanne tells us that the process to donate blood is fairly simple. You walk in and answer questions about your health. After that, they give a mini physical and once you pass that, you head to the blood donation chair. The actual donation process takes 5-10 minutes.
The Blood Bank of Delmarva is now doing corporate drives where the bus can come to your workplace and your employees can schedule times to donate. If the business isn’t big enough to do a corporate drive, they can do a blood drive at the blood bank where they set a block aside for employees to come in and donate blood.
There is an upcoming blood drive in Ocean City on January 17. It’s the 20th Annual Ocean City Blood Drive at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center from 8 am-6 pm.
