Community Blood Services Issues Urgent Appeal
For Type O Negative Blood Donors

October 2015

�

Community Blood Services urgently needs all eligible volunteer Type O negative blood donors, as well as Type O positive donors, to schedule their next life-giving appointments to help rebuild the critically low supply.

Currently, there is less than a one-day supply of O negative blood on the shelves, said Karen Ferriday, community affairs director at Community Blood Services, adding there is also a need for O positive blood donors. Often when the blood center is low on a blood type it can reach out to partner centers around the U.S. for their help but those centers also are experiencing a shortage of Type O negative donors and have been unable to help, she said.

Type O donors can call 201-251-3703 for an appointment or click here to schedule an appointment online at one of Community Blood Services� convenient donor centers or blood drives. Walk ins are also welcome. Click here for locations and hours of donation sites.

�We urgently need all eligible Type O negative blood donors to come out so we can continue to meet the needs of patients in our community hospitals,� Ferriday said, noting the center must collect from at least 50 donors daily to meet hospital needs.

O-negative blood donors are in most demand by hospitals because they are "universal donors" whose blood can be transfused into anyone in emergency rooms and trauma situations when there is no time for blood typing, Ferriday said. She said O negative cmv negative donors are also needed to help seriously ill babies in local hospitals.

Community Blood Services is a not-for-profit organization which has been serving the community for more than 60 years. It provides lifesaving blood and blood products to hospitals in New Jersey and New York, including HackensackUMC, St. Joseph�s Healthcare System in Paterson/Wayne, The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and Atlantic Health System hospitals.