Norfolk High Students Give The Gift of Life

Article Written by Desi Fuelberth

Norfolk High is always looking for ways to help out the people of the world. What better way to help out people than to donate blood and save lots of lives. On Tuesday, March 28, 2017, Norfolk High hosted a blood drive. Lots of students decided to pitch in and donate some of their blood to the American Red Cross.

Donating blood is a very selfless thing to do. One single donation can potentially help more than just one patient. Perhaps a person got in a car accident. That patient may need up to 100 pints of blood to survive. Every two seconds somebody living in the United States needs blood. That means in one day 43,200 people depend on blood donations to help save their life.

The number of blood donors in the United States each year is roughly 6.8 million people. Although an estimated thirty-eight percent of the US population is eligible to donate blood, only less than ten percent actually do give blood each year. The average adult has roughly ten pints of blood in his or her body. The blood donation is approximately one pint of blood. All of the donated blood is tested for HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis, and other infectious diseases before it can be released to hospitals.

The American Red Cross program started all the way back in 1940. The Red Cross makes a huge impact in a lot of people’s lives. They supply about 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply. They supply blood for patients in 2,600 hospitals all across the nation. Eighty percent of the blood donations given to the Red Cross are collected at mobile blood drives just like the one at Norfolk High. The remaining twenty percent are collected at Red Cross donation centers.

Clearly blood will always be in high demand for the whole world. The students of Norfolk High saved lots of lives by participating in the blood drive. It is always a great idea to give back to the community in any way possible. Good job, students!

For more great articles written by students, see the April 2017 Panther Newspaper!