The Blood Connection (TBC), the local non-profit, community blood center, is asking for the community’s immediate support in donating blood to help meet the urgent need of blood products for area hospitals.
Officials from TBC say that COVID-19 keeping some from donating blood, combined with hospitals seeing a “recent influx of traumas, in addition to restarting elective surgeries, has created a ‘storm of sizeable proportions.”
“Right now, we need the support of the community to help us avoid a blood shortage that we are on the verge of experiencing,” said Dr. Robert Rainer, Medical Director for The Blood Connection. “ Hospitals in this community are counting on TBC and local blood donors to come through for them and donate these life-saving blood products.”
TBC is the sole blood provider for all of the hospitals in South Carolina’s Upstate, which means if a patient in the Upstate receives blood, it is coming from TBC. In total, the organization supplies blood to over 85 hospitals across South Carolina, North Carolina and Northeast Georgia. Aside from traumas and other unforeseen instances where blood is needed, just to meet the regular needs of these hospitals, TBC says it must collect at least 700 units of blood everyday.