ALTON - The next American Red Cross blood drive at Alton Memorial Hospital will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, July 19, in the AMH café meeting rooms.
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To register, go to https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=BJCCC or contact Dave Whaley in Communications at Alton Memorial, 618-433-7947 or david.whaley@bjc.org.
All who come to donate will receive a BJC/Red Cross T-shirt, while supplies last, a free Fandango movie pass via email and will automatically be entered to win a 2025 Dodge Ram 1500 Big Horn.
BJC HealthCare is working with the Red Cross of Greater St. Louis this summer in a friendly competition in July to help boost blood donations. On July 12, 18 and 19, select BJC hospitals will be participating in the inaugural BJC Community Cares Blood Drive. This friendly competition between BJC hospitals is also a way to recruit members of the community to give to help those in need in support of the Red Cross of Greater St. Louis, which supplies blood products to BJC hospitals daily.
The Red Cross hopes to collect 180 blood donations during the events.
Rhonda Cooke, MD, Missouri Baptist Medical Center laboratory medical director, says BJC hospitals face extra challenges during the summer.
“During the summer months, it is extremely difficult for hospitals to keep a ready supply on hand for emergency surgeries, cancer patients and people with chronic medical conditions who require transfusion,” says Cooke.
“When bleeding patients come into the emergency room, only blood products can save their life. Whether it is a car accident or a gunshot wound, we must have blood products available to treat these patients.
"You never know when you or someone in your family may need a life-saving transfusion. Donate blood and you can save a life — there is no substitute," Cooke adds. "Our patients need you.”
The Red Cross needs donors of all blood types — and especially type O blood — to give blood this summer to help meet daily hospital demands. People with Type O blood are considered universal donors, meaning their blood can be used to transfuse people with any other blood type.
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