American Red Cross hosts blood drive in Superior
<p>Charlie Moser, a member of the Lewiston Idaho American Red Cross team, prepares Jim Lommen of Superior for his blood donation during a blood drive on Thursday.</p>
Residents of Superior came out to the Mineral Community Hospital to donate blood to the American Red Cross Thursday.
The goal for the day was twenty pints and Harry Hutchinson, an American Red Cross Team Supervisor, said that the goals change depending on the location of the drive – at some locations they receive as many as 100 pints of blood.
“It started off pretty good, there was a dead spot in there but I think it’s going to get pretty busy towards the end,” Hutchinson said. “Usually we have a rush when people get off of work.”
The American Red Cross comes to Superior every two months and puts on a blood drive. The next drive will take place on Nov. 1.
Hutchinson stressed the importance of participating in blood drives – not only for its impact on recipients of donated blood, but also for its benefits to the donor as well.
“Giving a pint of blood is going to help save someone’s life – that’s the big one. For the donor himself or herself, especially the guys – you give a pint of blood and it’s just like having an oil change,” Hutchinson said. “You will have the blood made up in a couple of weeks, for us guys it’s a real benefit more so than gals. You get some brand new stuff going with it in a short amount of time.”
Ultimately, Hutchinson said that donating blood will make a difference in someone’s life.
“For the person that blood it makes all the difference in the world,” Hutchinson said. “We hear stories everyday of somebody whose life was saved when they had to have three units or five units of blood. If it’s not there, they could die.”
Some blood types, such as O-Negative are needed more than others and Hutchinson said that if you have the blood type you should give blood as much as possible.
“Someone comes into the ER from a trauma or a wreck or something – if they don’t know their blood type they can automatically give them O-Negative until they can get whatever their actual blood type is,” Hutchinson said.
Once the blood drive is completed, the donations are first distributed to hospitals in Montana. Hutchinson said that they also supply blood to Idaho and elsewhere.
“It could end up in Las Vegas, or southern California,” Hutchinson said. “It depends on where the need is for a particular blood type. We draw more blood than we usually need in Montana, so we can ship it out. But we definitely supply Montana first.”
Hutchinson said that if residents are interested in donating blood they can make an appointment on the Red Cross website or call the Missoula office of the Red Cross. Walk-ins are also accepted.