As blood supplies run critically low this summer, the South Bend Medical Foundation is calling on local residents to step up and donate.
“We are in need of O positive and O negative type of blood. And probably A positive as well,” said Colleen Hahn, the foundation’s manager of blood donor recruitment and community awareness. “The most common type of blood is O positive and so with more people having O positive type of blood, there's usually more need for that type.”
The need isn’t just for emergencies like accidents or shootings. Daily procedures such as heart surgeries and regular transfusions for patients with conditions like sickle cell disease also draw from the local blood supply.
“Anytime you see, you know, an accident or a shooting or a stabbing that may take some blood, but it's also the daily things like, um, the heart surgeries that are scheduled for today,” Hahn said. “So that can change on a daily basis.”
The summer months are traditionally difficult for blood centers. Donors tend to be less available due to vacations and hot weather. Hahn said participation at mobile blood drives, especially those held at local factories, drops in extreme heat, when workers are already dehydrated or overheated.
To incentivize donations, the foundation is offering a “pint for a pint” promotion during July, with free frozen custard from Culver’s for all donors. Participants are also automatically entered into a reverse drawing for cash prizes.
Hahn said the ideal donor is a healthy new face, someone 16 or older (with parental consent if under 17), weighing at least 110 pounds. Many old disqualifiers no longer apply.
“If you were deferred for mad cow disease back in the 80s for traveling to England or Europe, that’s no longer a deferral,” she said. “If you were deferred for a tattoo for three months to a year, as long as your tattoo is healed, you're eligible to donate as long as it was done in a regulated facility in Indiana or Michigan.”
Donations are accepted on a walk-in basis at three locations:
- South Bend – Ireland Road
1290 E. Ireland Road (next to Sally Beauty Supply)
Monday – Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. - South Bend – Douglas Road
3355 Douglas Road
Monday – Friday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. - Goshen – Rei Boulevard
2222 Rieth Blvd.
Tuesday – Friday: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The foundation also hosts up to nine mobile blood drives per week. Locations and schedules are available at www.givebloodnow.com, or by calling 574-234-1157.
Hahn said donating blood takes less than an hour and can save up to two lives.
“It can’t be manufactured, we can’t make blood,” she said. “So it has to be donated from one person to another.”
