Reasons to Donate Blood

From LoveToKnow Charity

It is very difficult for many people to donate blood because they are afraid of blood donation process, and also they may not be really aware of the many important reasons to donate blood. It is easy for people to convince themselves that it isn't really necessary to donate blood and to just let other people provide the blood that's required to maintain the nation's critical blood supply. Read on to learn the many reasons why every person across the world should be donating blood as often as possible.

Facts of Blood Donation

There are Many Reasons to Donate Blood

There are a number of important reasons why citizens should try to donate blood as often as they possibly can. However, at the top of that long list are the many patients who could potentially die if there is not enough blood available for blood transfusions. All too often, especially during holidays and any local or national crisis, the Red Cross is forced to issue an alert reporting that blood supplies are at critical lows. During those times, supplies are often down to as low as just a few hours of available blood. Once blood supplies run out, if supplies from other areas of the country do not make it to the patient in time, that patient could die. The following patients face the reality of death if enough donors can not be found who are willing to offer up just a single pint of blood every 52 days.

Premature babies
Cancer patients
Children and adults with leukemia
Patients with sickle cell anemia
Accident and burn victims
Trauma patients
Patients facing critical surgeries

Thousands of patients as well as disaster and accident victims face the reality of imminent death if there is not enough blood to replace the blood that their body has either lost, or can't replace. The reality is black and white and ominious, not enough blood means death. Every single blood donor offers the ultimate gift anyone could ever offer another person - the gift of life.

Why Does Medical Science Require Blood?

So far, scientists haven't been able to find a way to artificially create the various elements within blood that medical procedures require. When people think of what happens to a blood donation, they picture the sort of blood transfusions patients receive after a major accident involving a trauma, where there's a great deal of blood loss. This is only one of the uses for human blood donations, where the plasma that's extracted from the blood is used to restore fluids and provide proteins that stop bleeding and reduce trauma. However, blood has so many uses throughout medicine that people usually don't realize. The following uses for the various components of blood make it very clear how important blood donations are to saving lives.

Platelets are used to treat leukemia and cancer patients in order to aid clotting and control bleeding from treatments.
Red blood cells are used in surgery in order to bring much needed oxygen during an operation, or to replenish rich red blood cell levels in anemia patients.
Cryoprecipitate is sometimes extracted from plasma and used to help hemophilia patients with clotting deficiencies.
Plasma Proteins are used to treat a multitude of illnesses such as albumin for kidney and liver disease, gamma globulin for measles and hepatitis, and Factor VIII for hemophilia.

The American Red Cross often reports that every single blood donation can potentially save up to three lives. When you consider that donated blood is seperated into components that serve so many important life-saving purposes, it's very easy to see why a single blood donation can do so much good.

Overcoming Your Fear and Saving Lives

The only thing you need to d when you are considering whether or not to donate blood, is to imagine what you would do if you ever came across a major traffic accident, and you had the ability to stop and save the lives of three people in an overturned car. Would you stop and save those three lives, or would you drive away? Every person who spends just a few minutes donating less than a pint of blood every couple of months is stopping that proverbial car and saving countless lives. By the time such a blood donor reaches their retirement, they will have saved literally thousands of lives throughout their lifetime. More than any other accomplishment in life, that is something you can be extremely proud of.