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PIKE COUNTY, Ky. (WYMT) – After the pandemic, flooding in July, and the holidays, officials with the Kentucky Blood Center say the state is facing a blood shortage and are encouraging people to come out to mobile blood drives and give back to their communities.
“At the same time, there’s a lot of illnesses going on, going around right now, respiratory illnesses, the flu, COVID-19, and so we just quite frankly are coming off a really terrible December in terms of turnout, so we’ re really struggling right now,” said Kentucky Blood Center Director of Media and Branding Eric Lindsey
Blood is needed by many hospitals across the state and here in the region, such as Pikeville Medical Center and ARH.
“It’s one of those things that the blood has to be on the shelves. Whatever you need it for,” said Lindsey. “We talked about needing it for cancer, needing it for traumas, needing it for surgery, whatever the need is, that blood has to be there when the time comes, because you just can’t sort of plan for those things.”
Along with local donation centers in Corbin and Pikeville, the Kentucky Blood Center is hosting many mobile blood drives to kick off the new year.
“We also understand there’s a lot of people in those rural communities in Eastern Kentucky that maybe still aren’t near one and you know that’s the point of having so many mobile drives in so many different areas,” said Lindsey.
On Tuesday, doctors, nurses, and staff at Tug Valley ARH donated at a mobile blood drive and gave back to their community.
“It’s something that you know again if you’re looking to start the year off right and do something to give back to your community I can’t think of something that has a bigger impact than donating blood,” said Lindsey.
On Friday, Jan. 6, the Kentucky Blood Center’s Bloodmobile will be hosting a mobile blood drive at the WYMT studio in Hazard from 3 pm to 7 pm
You can visit www.kybloodcenter.org to find more information about upcoming mobile blood drives or to schedule an appointment to donate.
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