By: Tvisha Jindal
 

The summer months mark a new challenge for healthcare: collecting enough blood donations to last the season. Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs lifesaving blood, and that number only increases during the summer.

To kick-off the Red Cross’ summer blood collection efforts, the DFW Metro East Board of Directors hosted a blood drive at the North Texas Regional headquarters in Dallas in June.

Previous board chairman Michael Silberman led the Board blood drive campaign. Silberman, who has been on the board since 2017, noticed a few trends. The blood supply usually goes down in the winter because everyone is indoors, and few people come out of their houses for donations. Conversely, the summer poses a challenge because everyone is out doing activities that can ramp up potential blood donation requirements.

“It is really important to set the tone for the summer with a good blood drive and get the message out that we all need to give blood,” Silberman said before signing up to give a Power Red Donation, a process that allows the extraction of two units of red blood cells instead of one.

Anyone could need blood — from mothers giving birth to people with sickle cell disease who require blood transfusions. Hospitals need to have blood on hand for everyone who needs it.

Cancer patients also require blood products. It’s what led current Board Chair Matt Anderson to start donating blood.  As a young adult, he started giving with his mom’s encouragement, but later in life, both of Anderson’s parents were diagnosed with cancer and needed blood donations for their treatment. In earlier life, Anderson worked with another blood collection organization to host two blood drives with his law firm. Now, he’s a regular host for the Red Cross.

“Every time you donate, you get a sense of fulfillment that you have saved someone’s life, and that is significant,” said Anderson, who also gave a Power Red donation.

It wasn’t just the board members who stepped up to give. Frequent blood donors, like Michael Leatherwood, took the time to roll up their sleeves and do their part. Leatherwood has been donating blood every eight weeks for years.

“It is just the right thing to do,” he said. “If I’m able to, I’m going to.”

Despite the need for lifesaving blood and blood products in hospitals every day, only three percent of those eligible to donate blood in the United States do so. To make donating easier and more convenient, the Red Cross holds 500 blood drives a day nationwide on average with approximately 100 each month in Texas These help the organization supply 40 percent of the nation’s blood, and donors in the North Texas Region play a significant role in helping maintain a healthy blood supply.

Since blood has a shelf-life and can’t be artificially manufactured, the only way to collect more is from generous donors. They’re especially needed in the summer when the Red Cross sees donations dip and demand go up.

“The North Texas Region has blood drives every day, but having the Board involved brings our mission much more visibility.” said Red Cross Regional Donor Services Executive Brian Moeschler.

Moeschler has been leading the Biomed team for four years now and has been working with the Red Cross since graduate school. He emphasizes the community needs to donate and how the Red Cross tries to create opportunities wherever available.

“We want to have access to every part of a city — from schools to workplaces — so that we can bring blood drives to people,” Moeschler said. “We will always make donating easy.”