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Lab Services challenges other departments by Maggie Diebolt Public Relations With needs arising for MUSC's Level 1 trauma center, solid organ transplants and patients are requiring regular blood support, increasing demands translate into increasing urgency for blood donations.   To meet blood supply needs, the American Red Cross established a fixed donor site at MUSC in Room 279 in the Main Hospital (across from 2W Amphitheater) that accepts blood year-round. The fixed location was necessary, because MUSC also is the state’s largest user of blood, Red Cross officials said.   “It is not common knowledge that we have a donation site here at MUSC. We’re trying to get our donation levels back to what they used to be in 1997 and 1998, and raise awareness among employees that we do need blood and it’s very convenient to donate here,” said Nancy Reilly, manager of Transfusion Medicine at MUSC.   With a goal to increase blood donations by 50 percent this year, the Red Cross is working with MUSC to increase the number of donors. The Department of Lab Services kicked off the donation initiative this year by collecting 32 units of blood from 50 people who presented. Lab Services and the Red Cross are challenging other departments to top their donation amount. “Small departments can team up, and staff members can get another person to donate in their stead if they aren’t eligible to donate,” said Reilly.   The transplant and trauma centers can go through an average of 65 units of blood a day, so when people donate one unit of blood, that single unit can help up to three people. One gunshot victim can use up to 100 units of blood, according to Libby Wright, a Red Cross donor recruitment representative.   Blood can be donated every 56 days, or up to six times a year, and “it is good to donate a little more regularly,” said Wright. “Everybody may not be able to donate, but everybody can talk about it and get awareness out.”   Family members and friends of patients are also encouraged to donate blood while they pass time in waiting rooms. A quick trip to the fixed donor site could help save lives, and drop-ins are always welcome.    “The need for blood is only increasing,” said Reilly. “In order to meet the needs of patients we’ve had to struggle to keep our shelves stocked with blood products. If the Red Cross doesn’t have the blood we need there’s not a whole lot we can do. We are 100-percent dependent on the public for donations; every one of our blood products is from volunteer donors, out of the goodness of their hearts.”   Potential donors need to be at least 17 years of age, weigh 110 pounds and in general good health. The Red Cross fixed donor site at MUSC is open Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Donors who are not MUSC employees can park in any MUSC parking lot and bring in their parking ticket to have it validated. Appointments can be made online at http://www.givelife.org (the sponsor code is MUSC).   For more information, contact Libby Wright at wrightse@usa.redcross.org, or 364-3812.     Friday, Jan. 26, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.