Blood Needs and Chemotherapy
The Red Cross provides a wealth of information about donating blood. Often when in chemotherapy, people with cancer need blood or plasma. So when friends ask what they can do to help, one suggestion is to give blood.
The need is great. According to the Red Cross
- Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood.
- More than 41,000 blood donations are needed every day.
- There are four types of transfusable products that can be derived from blood: red cells, platelets, plasma and cryoprecipitate. Typically, two or three of these are produced from a pint of donated whole blood – hence each donation can help save up to three lives. Healthy bone marrow makes a constant supply of red cells, plasma and platelets.
- The body will replenish the elements given during a blood donation – some in a matter of hours and others in a matter of weeks.
Another reason is that stored blood doesn’t last forever: for example red blood cells can be refrigerated up to 42 days, platelets can be stored for up to 5 days. Luckily plasma can be frozen for up to one year.
Here is an infographic from the blog Best Masters of Science in Nursing Degrees which explains much of the process of donating blood and the dire need for people to give blood.
Source: BestMasterofScienceinNursing.com
