The Oklahoma Blood Institute is partnering with the Tulsa Zoo in hopes of attracting more blood donors this coming summer.
Since March, sever weather has disrupted many donor appointments and as a result OBI has fallen behind in gathering the monthly amount of blood needed to supply area hospitals.
OBI executive director, Jan Laub, says the summer is a challenging time of getting blood donors into facilities in order to donate and the recent string of storms across Oklahoma has made things more difficult.
“Summer time is a difficult time for blood drives. Especially right now we're in a critical need for O negative donors,” Laub said.
More than 300 hospitals receive blood from OBI and in order to meet the high demand donor centers need 1,000 donations each day.
Joseph Newport, 9, receives blood transfusions every three weeks due to a condition that thwarts his ability to produce red blood cells.
Newport's mother, Jennifer, says she's thankful for OBI and all of the donors who help many children like Joseph live a happy and healthy life.
“It's sad to say, but we do actually have some experience in another country where there wasn't an OBI, there wasn't a blood source and it's fatal for some children. Having OBI here and having all the donors that come down, it means the difference between life or death for Joseph every month,” Newport said.
In order to schedule an appointment to donate blood at OBI click here.
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