Blood Drive is July 12

There are many reasons to mark your calendar for a life saving appointment on July 12, 2016. If you are eligible, it is a great time to contribute to life. The Mayers Memorial Hospital Blood Drive is scheduled from 1:00 – 6:00 pm at the Fall River Seventh Day Adventist Church.

You can pre-schedule your appointment by visiting www.bloodsource.org/drives and enter location code H105.

Here are a few facts about blood and blood donation:

More than 4.5 million patients need blood transfusions each year in the U.S. and Canada.

43,000 pints: amount of donated blood used each day in the U.S. and Canada.

Someone needs blood every two seconds.

Only 37 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood – less than 10 percent do annually.

About 1 in 7 people entering a hospital need blood.

One pint of blood can save up to three lives.

Healthy adults who are at least 17 years old, and at least 110 pounds may donate about a pint of blood—the most common form of donation—every 56 days, or every two months. Females receive 53 percent of blood transfusions; males receive 47 percent.

94 percent of blood donors are registered voters.

Four main red blood cell types: A, B, AB and O. Each can be positive or negative for the Rh factor. AB is the universal recipient; O negative is the universal donor of red blood cells.

Dr. Karl Landsteiner first identified the major human blood groups – A, B, AB and O – in 1901.