The New York Blood Center is “critically low” on the most common of blood types used for transfusions and is offering an incentive for donations.
“Urgent: Blood donors needed, especially O+ and O- types!” the organization posted on social media over the weekend. “Trauma season is in full swing, and blood supply is critically low.”
Donors this week will be given a beach towel and tote bag for their blood. The offer doesn’t apply to candidates who are currently ill, have tested positive test for HIV, are a hemophiliac, have had viral hepatitis B or hepatitis C or certain types of cancer or are under the age of 17.
O negative is the most common blood type used for transfusions when the blood type is unknown,which hs why its used in emergency situations when a patient’s blood type isn’t known, according to the American Red Cross.
The office of New York State Sen. Pete Harckham teamed up with New York Blood Center and the Mahopac Volunteer Fire Department last month to collect 40 pints of blood, which the organization said could save as many as 120 lives. More than 56,000 traumas reportedly occur annually in the Empire State, mostly on weekends and during the summer.
Donations also tend to drop during the summer months, according to the 60-year-old nonprofit organization headquartered on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The New York Blood Center’s website lists 20 locations in New York and New Jersey.