June 14 Is World Blood Donor Day
We celebrate the presence of a reliable blood supply in our community.
Thank you to these EvergreenHealth employee donors who shared photos with us.
If you lived locally in 1944 and were involved in a serious car accident or in need of a transfusion during surgery, there was no single group collecting donations or any central blood supply. A request may have gone out to your immediate family for a compatible donor. Or you may have needed to wait until a paid donor with your blood type was found, and their blood was collected and processed. Fortunately, at that time local physician Dr. Eugene Potter proposed a county-wide blood bank . What started as King County Central Blood Bank and then Puget Sound Blood Center became Bloodworks Northwest in 2015. Today, Bloodworks Northwest is an independent, non-profit organization harnessing donor gifts to provide a safe, lifesaving blood supply to 95% of hospitals in the Pacific Northwest.
We take many things in life for granted until they become necessary. As surgeons, we never know when we're going to have a patient that requires an immediate, urgent or emergent blood transfusion. But when that patient needs it, it's a life-saving measure. And if it weren't for the awareness of the community and our volunteers who donate blood, we'd be without the ability to save many patients' lives. So, for us here at EvergreenHealth, World Blood Donor Day is a vital reminder of the importance of something we may otherwise take for granted.
It takes 1,000 donors a day to sustain the blood supply for patients in our community. Thank you for scheduling your next donation. And if you're considering a first-time donation, you'll join the ranks of EvergreenHealth employees who are proud donors. To learn more or to donate, you may visit here .
