Columbus Zoo hosts community blood drive to assist in nationwide blood shortage
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The nationwide blood shortage poses a serious risk here in Central Ohio, and now the Columbus Zoo is getting involved.
Several of today's visitors at the Columbus Zoo were there for a community blood drive, organized by the Zoo and Versiti Blood Center of Ohio.
"Takes you know ten to fifteen minutes, and then you're out the door," said William King, a blood donor from Delaware.
"Blood donation has been extremely tough the last couple of years," said Heidi Seitz, regional manager of donor recruitment with Versiti Blood Center of Ohio.
Seitz says their organization is the sole provider of blood for Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center and The James Cancer Hospital.
And because of the nationwide blood shortage, their supply has reached critically low levels.
"The need for blood really is quite great in Central Ohio, OSU Medical Center alone uses over 60,000 units of blood a year, but we are only collecting about 10% of that currently," said Seitz.
It's why dozens of donors from both the zoo and the community came out to today's drive, like Jenny Terman.
"I do have a friend that recently had a blood transfusion, so kind of the same day that that happened, this popped up in my email and I thought, it's a good time to donate," said Terman.
And others like William King, say he was also motivated to donate, because of his loved ones.
"I always think what would happen, if I, or my wife, or my daughter needed blood and there wasn't any out there," said King.
Donors received a free ticket and the Columbus Zoo is planning another blood drive in the summer.