CHESAPEAKE, Va. — At the Greenbrier Country Club in Chesapeake Jan. 11, people trickled in to a banquet room one or two at a time to donate blood.
The Red Cross was holding a blood drive there.
The event comes as the Red Cross reports the number of blood donors was at a 20-year low.
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Ned Worman is a longtime blood donor and has also donated platelets for the past year and a half.
"How many times can you get up in the morning knowing that you’re going to save somebody’s life without pulling somebody out of a burning building?" said Worman "It’s an easy process. A whole blood donation takes 10 minutes once you get through the registration process."
He was volunteering with the Red Cross and helping check people in Thursday.
“Donating blood (and) platelets saves lives," Worman emphasized.
The 20-year donor low represents a 40% decline in donors over that time, according to the Red Cross.
Blood has to come from a person, it cannot be manufactured.
The Red Cross cites COVID, changes to donation eligibility and how hospitals handle blood transfusions as reasons for the decline.
“For us, that just means that we are trying to encourage people to get out to drives this week (and) in the upcoming weeks," Red Cross's Virginia Coastal Chapter Executive Director Katie Niefhoff said.
For Niehoff, blood donation is personal. Because of a medical condition, she had to have blood transfusions when her youngest son was born.
“I lost my full body’s volume of blood and had to receive 14 transfusions in order to survive his birth and to keep him safe," said Niehoff.
News 3 reached out to two hospitals on Thursday wanting to know where they get their blood and what the current status of their blood supply is.
CHKD said the hospital gets blood products from the Red Cross, and as of Thursday added, “CHKD has an adequate supply of blood products.”
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Back at the Country Club, Worman said the event was helping motivate people to donate.
“We’ve had a couple people say ‘Hey, I work here,'” said Worman. "'Can I come in and donate?’”
A gesture that could save someone’s life or their own.
To find a blood donation event near you, click here.
