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January Is National Blood Donor Month. The American Red Cross Encourages People To Donate

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — January is National Blood Donor Month, and the American Red Cross helps patients battling illness and injury thanks to blood donors.

And they need blood donors. Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood. On February 11, 2004, that moment in time came for Anna Shuster.

"I had a car accident, I was pronounced dead, no pulse, no blood flow," Shuster.

Without donated blood, she wouldn't be alive.

"Upon my arrival at Shock Trauma, I received 65 units of blood within the first three hours and that was just to figure out which limb to recover first," Shuster said.

It's why she works for the Red Cross today.

"If it wasn't for the American Red Cross donors that come in here to donate that initial O negative blood that I needed to use at the beginning of that car accident, I would not be here to be able to tell my story," Shuster said.

The American Red Cross said there is a donation downfall during the winter.

"With the holiday season uh, we have higher depression rates we actually have more car accidents, etc, that we need to be able to have that blood on the shelves for them," Shuster said.

Each day, the Red Cross must collect 13,000 pints of blood from across the country to meet the needs of patients.

Shuster said she's living proof of how important blood donations are.

"If that supply was not there, I would not be here," Shuster said.

The American Red Cross recommends people who are interested in donating check their website to learn more.

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