Blood drive set for next week

Published 9:29 am Wednesday, June 25, 2014

There will be a blood drive for the Freeborn-Mower chapter of the American Red Cross next week.

Residents can donate blood from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on June 30 at Primrose Retirement Communities at 1701 22nd Ave. SW in Austin.

Red cross officials say donors of all types are needed now to prevent a shortage and help maintain blood supply, especially those with type O negative, B negative and A negative.

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While the need for blood remains constant during the summer, donations drop. Between June and August, on average, two fewer donors give blood at each Red Cross blood drive than what hospitals need.

Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood. Recently, a patient needed 79 blood products after injuries sustained during a car accident. Thanks to blood donors who gave in the days and weeks prior, blood products were readily available for this patient and thousands of others at about 2,700 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country supported by the Red Cross.