Solvita Blood Center has critical need for donors

Monroe donor Jim Bachmann is a robotic automation engineer who knows no matter how strong a mechanical robot arm may be, it’s useless for giving the gift of life. Bachman is a blood type AB positive universal plasma and platelet donor who rolled up his sleeve for his milestone 100th lifetime donation April 21 at the Dayton Blood Center. Bachman works in automation solutions for Gosiger in Dayton. He donated platelets and plasma throughout the pandemic, made 17 donations in 2022, and reached his 100th donation with his fifth donation of the year. CONTRIBUTED

Monroe donor Jim Bachmann is a robotic automation engineer who knows no matter how strong a mechanical robot arm may be, it’s useless for giving the gift of life. Bachman is a blood type AB positive universal plasma and platelet donor who rolled up his sleeve for his milestone 100th lifetime donation April 21 at the Dayton Blood Center. Bachman works in automation solutions for Gosiger in Dayton. He donated platelets and plasma throughout the pandemic, made 17 donations in 2022, and reached his 100th donation with his fifth donation of the year. CONTRIBUTED

The Solvita Blood Center is in critically low supply of type O and type B after high hospital usage over the Memorial Day weekend and no blood drives scheduled for Friday.

The Solvita Dayton Center at 349 S. Main St. is encouraging donations by giving the choice of a free Kings Island e-ticket or $15 e-gift card now through Saturday.

Critically low means current inventory is at less than a three-day supply and Solvita cannot fill all hospital orders.

Hospital usage was high over the weekend, with 80 units of blood products used for multiple emergency procedures on May 24 alone, according to the blood center.

The summer travel season also is a challenging time for Solvita to register the 350 donors needed every day to supply area hospitals. In addition, there were no blood drives May 24, Solvita was closed in observance of Memorial Day, and there are no upcoming blood drives on Friday.

Also, as a BERC member, Solvita was obligated to sent units of type O negative blood to North Texas for tornado victims.

Solvita asks community members to make time to donate or to rescheduled a missed donation as soon as possible.

To save time, use DonorXPress to complete the donor questionnaire before arriving at the blood center, which can be found on the Donor Time App or at www.solvita.org/donorxpress.

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