A lot of buses pull onto campus, from the O.U.T. bus to the College GameDay bus, but only the blood donation buses save lives.
United Blood Services supplies blood products to 27 hospitals in Northern Mississippi and Northwest Alabama. Supplements are given to other places, like St. Jude’s in Memphis, Tennessee. Among those 27 hospitals is Oxford Baptist Memorial Hospital.
All blood products given to hospitals are donated volunteer blood products. Volunteers can donate their blood at a blood center or through a drive, like on the buses. United Blood Services hosts blood drives on the Ole Miss campus and at other places in the community, like churches.
Rhonda Weaver is the donor recruitment supervisor for United Blood Services in Tupelo.
“There is a need for blood every day,” Weaver said. “The times of the year that blood centers struggle is when school is out and usually during flu season.”
The most recent blood drive on campus brought three big buses to campus for three days, Oct. 22 through Oct. 24. The Kappa Alpha Theta sorority hosted the blood drive in relation to their annual Theta Encore event.
Freshman Faith Meyer participated in Theta Encore and donated blood at the drive.
“I donated blood for Theta Encore and it was a great way to give back to the community,” Meyer said. “I believe that giving blood is something selfless you can do to help make a difference in someone’s life.”
Many instances require patients at the hospital to need blood. Some of the most common include: surgeries, accidents, cancer patients, sickle cell patients, burn victims and more. A single donation of blood can save up to three lives.
After the donation is given the blood is held in the center’s refrigerators until samples can go through at least 10 tests. After the blood is cleared for distribution the units are labeled and given to hospitals.
“We rely heavily on our churches and other community drives during slower months,” Weaver said.
January and February and then June, July, and August are usually the slowest months for blood donations.
Healthy people are able to donate blood every 56 days. Weaver said United Blood Services needs at least 175 donors Monday through Friday to meet the ordinary needs for the hospitals they support. That total doesn’t include any out of the ordinary accidents.
“I would like to see more drives on the Ole Miss campus,” Weaver said. “Mississippi State has a drive once a month and I am sure Ole Miss could do the same.”
Mississippi State has different groups sponsor each month but the drives collect anywhere from 35-70 units each time they are on campus.
Students and community can help by donating blood, recruiting donors and promoting drives.
