Blood Donations, Supplies Critically Low

Blood supplies throughout the nation are critically low, and our region is no exception. Miller-Keystone Blood Center along with Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) are asking for blood donors to roll up their sleeves to help those who need blood and blood components such as platelets.

According to Marie Clemens, corporate director of communications, Miller-Keystone, blood donations typically decrease in the winter, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has added another layer of challenges as many blood drives have been and continue to be canceled.

"We are currently in the midst of the most significant national blood shortage that our country has ever experienced," she says. "While in the past, we were often able to import blood products from community blood centers throughout the United States, that is not the case this year as these organizations are experiencing the same chronic blood supply issues that we are."

You can donate blood at an upcoming LVHN blood drive or at any Miller-Keystone location. Appointments are required to donate. For more information or to make an appointment, visit Giveapint.org.

• Lehigh Valley Hospital–Muhlenberg, Feb. 9, 8 a.m.–4 p.m.

• About 450 pints of blood are needed every day in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey region served by Miller-Keystone Blood Center, supplier of blood products for LVHN and 28 other hospitals and health networks.
• O-negative blood, the universal blood type, is used to treat patients in emergency situations when hospital staff does not have time to determine an individual’s blood type.
• O-positive is the most common blood type, and one in three people will need this type of blood transfusion.