Gold Coast Library hosts a blood drive to dent shortage

The library’s all about community, and we’ve been doing all we can to help out.”

Clare Trollo, Gold Coast Library

The blood shortage by the numbers

4.5 million Americans receive blood transfusions each year from about 40,000 pints of blood.

Only 37 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood and less than 10 percent do annually.

Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood and/or platelets. Approximately 29,000 units of red blood cells are needed each day.

The average red blood cell transfusion collects approximately three units.

A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 units of blood.

The Gold Coast Public Library, in Glen Head, hosted a blood drive with the New York Blood Center Jan. 31 in an ongoing effort to help end a national blood shortage.

Twenty-seven donors gave at the library Monday, donating a pint of blood each, which, in total, could save as many as 81 lives, as each donation saves up to three.

“We would like to thank the donors that took the time to brave the snowy, cold weather to come down and help in this critical time of need,” Clare Trollo, the library’s program coordinator, said. “Also, to the nurses and volunteers that worked so hard to make the day a success.”

Gold Coast has held blood drives since 2011, with one per year each July until five years ago, when the national blood shortage worsened, Trollo said. The library added a second drive in January to maximize donations.

“The library’s all about community, and we’ve been doing all we can to help out,” Trollo said.

A major reason that blood collection centers haven’t kept up with demand is that community blood drives have been postponed or canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. “Hundreds of organizations have not returned to hosting blood drives,” Sharon Silva, account manager for the New York Blood Center, said. “This past weekend’s storm resulted in 1,000 fewer donations due to blood drive cancelations and lower donor turnout. Any upcoming blood drive will be an opportunity for us to recover some of these lost donations. Hopefully, this will encourage donors.” 

If each blood drive scheduled from tomorrow through the end of February had five additional donations, NYBC would recover more than 1,200 units for the community, Silva said.

Since the start of the pandemic, blood donations have waned from the 200 drives that the New York Blood Center normally saw each month on Long Island to about 130. The New York center declared an emergency in August when donations dwindled to a one-day supply for some types of blood.

The American Red Cross announced on Jan. 11 that faces its first-ever blood crisis amid a surge in cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Because of Covid restrictions, 68 percent of U.S. blood centers had less blood than needed to meet regular demand as of Jan. 14, according to the Red Cross. The centers have under three days of blood supply, the minimum necessary to meet the regular demand. Doctors are urging people to donate blood so that hospitals can keep up with demand and save lives.

Normally, the Red Cross supplies 40 percent of the U.S.’s national blood supply for hospital use. Since the beginning of the pandemic, however, the organization has seen a 10 percent decline in the number of people donating blood.

“All types are needed now, especially types O positive and O negative, as well as platelet donations, to help reverse this national blood crisis,” the Red Cross wrote in a Jan. 11 news release.

About 29,000 units (one unit = 500 ml) of red blood cells are needed daily in the U.S., and while the average red blood cell transfusion uses around three units, a car accident victim could need up to 100 units.

“The blood shortage in this area is at a critical level. Please donate if you can,” Trollo said.

Republican Assemblymen Michael Montesano and Edward Ra sponsor the drive at the library each year, which is in both assemblymen’s districts, covering school districts in Sea Cliff, Oyster Bay and Hempstead.