By Staff
NILES - January 2006 is National Blood Donor Month and Michigan Community Blood Centers is inviting everyone to participate.
The nonprofit blood bank is sponsoring a drive, open to the public, on Saturday, Jan. 14, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Niles District Library.
Michigan Community Blood Centers is responsible for providing 100 percent of the regular blood supply for Lakeland Regional Health Systems as well as to hospitals in three other regions of the state.
The blood bank must collect over 300 pints of blood each day in order to meet the needs of all these hospitals. In the U.S., someone needs blood every three seconds and, on average, one out of every five people entering the hospital will need blood.
Patients in American hospitals receive around 38,000 units of blood each day. In 2006 alone, as many as 4.5 million patients will require blood transfusions.
Besides being used to treat accident victims and surgical patients, blood is also used to help people receiving treatment for many kinds of diseases such as leukemia and other types of cancer.
Any healthy person 17 or older who weighs 110 pounds or more may be eligible to give blood every 56 days.
Visit Michigan Community Blood Centers online at www.miblood.org, or call 1-866-MIBLOOD.