Demetria Castanias of Mason celebrated her 16th birthday in July last year by donating blood at a local Hoxworth donor center. "I want to celebrate my life by helping to save others," she said.
Hoxworth Blood Center has issued an emergency appeal for Type O blood donors.
The center’s Type O inventory dropped to emergency levels due to “extremely heavy demand” for this blood type, said Gregg Boothe, the center’s assistant director.
“More than 500 Type O blood products were used in the last week to support two patients in our community,” he explained.
“This situation has reached a point where our ability to adequately supply our hospitals with needed blood is severely compromised.”
Hoxworth operates eight neighborhood donor centers in Anderson, Blue Ash, Central at the University of Cincinnati, Downtown, Ft. Mitchell, Tri-County, Western Hills and Mason.
The Mason location is at 9554 Mason-Montgomery Road in the Governor’s Pointe Shopping Center. Find other locations at www.hoxworth.org.
Schedule an appointment at any of the locations by calling 513-451-0910. Walk-ins also welcome.
Donors this week will be automatically entered into Hoxworth’s Geek Week raffle for a chance to win an iPad, Nook e-reader or Nintendo Wii package.
Donors must be at least 17 years old (16 with a signed parental consent form), in good health and weigh at least 110 pounds. They’re encouraged to eat a good meal and drink plenty of water in the four hours before donating.
Hoxworth says it requires at least 350 volunteer blood donors and 40 volunteer platelet donors a day to meet the need of Tri-state hospitals and patients.
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