New year to give so people live!

It's a new year and a fresh look at life! How about a new way of saving lives? Medical advancements and changes in hospital protocols have dramatically affected the focus in blood banking. Gone are the days of broad cattle calls for anyone and everyone to roll up their sleeve and donate a unit of whole blood. It is now more critical than ever to manage our inventory by type and product. All donors are needed, but different blood types can help in different ways at different times!

One trend that has continued to revolutionize our focus, is the rising need for platelets, and declining use of red cells. What this means for us as a blood bank, is to work with each and every donor to educate them on what patients need from their particular blood type. While this can change from day to day, and even sometimes minute to minute, there are a few things we want donors to know.

First, the blood type you need the most is whatever type is not on the shelf when you need it! That means blood type inventories dictate what we recruit and request from our donors. If we have a comfortable supply of A positive, we may ask an A positive donor to consider donating two or three units of platelets. Platelets are not only more in demand than ever, but they have a 5 day shelf life! Considering we lose one day to testing, we only have 4 short days to get that lifesaving gift to a patient in need. Through our Gold Club program at our donor centers, we can safely collect several units of one component of a donors' blood and reinfuse the rest back to the donor. As good stewards, we want to take only what is needed to support our patients and maintain an understanding with our donors that when you donate, your gift of blood is saving lives.

Thanks to Lorre Gracey, her sweet dog Abbe Normal and Souza Family Vineyards we are giving away a$250 dollar cash prize to one lucky Trima donor from Tehachapi! All Tehachapi donors who travel down to one of our Bakersfield locations to donate through our Trima program until Feb 29, will be entered to win! What better resolution then to make 2016 the year that you give and people live!