Blood supplies of Type O and Type B bloods are running drastically low, as many blood drives across the Midwest have been impacted by winter storms.
Supplies for O positive and O negative have been at one day to one and a half day supplies. Platelets and B positive and B negative red blood cells are also low.
Michelle Stebral and Megan Dee with the Blood Center of Iowa, said that blood drives like the one at Lynch Ford-Chevrolet heled Wednesday, Jan. 10, are extremely critical to get in, especially with winter weather postponing or canceling many drives in the region.
Several Lynch employees and members of the public took advantage of the time between the storms to donate blood Wednesday.
Stebral and Dee said other blood drives, including one at Lisbon Schools, had to be postponed due to the weather. The blood drive at Lisbon Schools has been rescheduled to Thursday, Jan. 25.
The Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department has a blood drive today (Thursday, Jan. 18) from 2 to 6 p.m. The police drive already had half the slots filled prior to the winter storms this past week.
All donations are desperately needed, if people can donate blood at an upcoming blood drive. ImpactLife is providing all donors a voucher to redeem for the donor’s choice of an electronic gift card, 500 bonus points to use in the Donor Rewards Store, or an equivalent donation to the National Forest Foundation.