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Community Corner

Winter Weather Creates Critical Need for Blood

Gwinnett Medical Center affected by shortages due to closings, cancellations

Last week's snow and icy conditions that shut down metro Atlanta resulted in a shortage of blood for hospitals across the region, including Gwinnett Medical Center.

"Due to the storm, we were unable to collect more than 2,600 units of  blood and platelets," said April Phillips, communications associate for the American Red Cross. Inclement weather forced blood donation centers to close, canceled blood drives and the ability of donors to attend the blood drives.

“The result of the cancellation of that many blood drives and consequently all those blood donations translates into as many as 24,000 blood products that we now do not have available for patients who may need them,” said Chris Hrouda, executive vice president, Red Cross Biomedical Services.

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Gwinnett Medical Center is feeling the impact shortage. "Our supply is critically low," said Trudy Turner, Blood Bank Supervisor for GMC. So far, the hospital has been able to operate as normal, but without more blood supplies Turner says they are looking at the possibility of not being able to do surgeries. “If I get one trauma in, I’m going to wipe out my entire inventory of O-negative, leaving me with nothing." GMC has locations in Lawrenceville and Duluth.

According to the Red Cross Southern Blood Services Region, there is a particular need for people with O-negative blood to give now. O-negative is the universal blood type which can go to any patient regardless of their blood type. O-negative blood is often used in emergency cases when doctors can’t wait to type a patient’s blood.

The shelf life of red blood cells is up to 42 days, while the shelf life for platelets is only five days. "Platelets are important to the survival of patients with leukemia and cancer,"said Phillips.

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Donors must be in general good health, be at least 17 years old and weigh more than 110 pounds. They must also be free of cold or flu symptoms.  

The American Red Cross Donation Center at 3090 Premiere Pkwy. in Duluth is accepting appointments for blood donations. There also are other blood donation drives being held in Lawrenceville and Duluth:

January 19, 2011, 3-7:45 p.m.
Duluth First United Methodist Church, 3208 Duluth Hwy. 120, Duluth, GA 30096. Donation Types: Blood

January 21, 2011, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.   
United States Postal Service, 1557 Buford Dr.,  Lawrenceville, GA 30043. Donation Types: Blood

January 23, 2011, 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
395 W. Crogan St. (Hwy. 29), Lawrenceville, GA 30045. Donation Types: Blood, Double Red Cell Donations

January 23, 2011,  8 a.m.-1 p.m.
, 2100 Duluth Hwy., Lawrenceville, GA 30044. Donation Types: Blood, Double Red Cell Donations

 For more information, call 1-800-RED CROSS or visit www.redcrossblood.org.

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