TAMPA, Fla. — The American Red Cross announced Monday its national blood supply fell to critically low levels – dropping nearly 25 percent since early August.
This shortage could potentially threaten patients' medical care for emergency needs for blood or for people with critical conditions like cancer and sickle cell disease who depend on blood transfusions, the nonprofit explains online.
"Donors of all blood types are urgently needed, and there is an emergency need for platelet donors and type O blood donors to make an appointment to give now to ensure patients across the country continue to receive critical medical care," nonprofit leaders explain online. "Back-to-back months of worsening climate-driven disasters have further strained the blood supply, resulting in blood drive cancelations and reducing much-needed blood and platelet donations in affected areas."
With the need for blood donations high, there are areas across Tampa Bay to go to donate for anyone interested.
Here's a list of places you can donate blood in each county:
Citrus County
Hardee County
Hernando County
Highlands County
Highlands County Service Center, 21 Ryant Boulevard, Suit B, Sebring
Hillsborough County
Manatee County
Pasco County
Pinellas County
Polk County
Sarasota County
"The need for blood is constant," Dr. Pampee Young, chief medical officer for the American Red Cross, said in a statement. "Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood — an often-invisible emergency that the rest of the world doesn’t see behind closed hospital doors.
"Now, that urgency has only heightened.”
10 Tampa Bay's Claire Farrow contributed to this report.
