South Nassau Communities Hospital's Emergency Blood Drive

Oceanside, NY, October 02, 2011 --(PR.com)-- In response to the ongoing critical blood shortage on Long Island, South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside will hold an emergency blood drive on Thursday, October 20, 2011, 7:00a.m.-9:00p.m.

To schedule an appointment to donate blood, call South Nassau’s Human Resources Department at (516) 632-4080. For medical questions concerning blood donations call 1-800-688-0900.

Eligible blood donors must:

· Bring ID with signature or photo

· Weigh at least 110 lbs.

· Be between the ages of 16 – 75 (16 year olds must have parental permission. Age 76 and over need doctors note)

· Eat well (low fat) and drink fluids before donating blood

· Have had no tattoos put on their body for past 12 months.

According to America’s Blood Centers:

1. More than 4.5 million patients need blood transfusions each year in the U.S. and Canada.

2. Someone needs blood every two seconds.

3. About 1 in 7 people entering a hospital need blood.

4. One pint of blood can save up to three lives.

5. Much of today's medical care depends on a steady supply of blood from healthy donors.

6. Children being treated for cancer, premature infants and children having heart surgery need blood and platelets from donors of all types, especially type O.

7. The #1 reason blood donors say they give is because they "want to help others."

8. If all blood donors gave three times a year, blood shortages would be a rare event (The current average is about two).

9. If only one more percent of all Americans would give blood, blood shortages would disappear for the foreseeable future.

South Nassau Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 435 beds, more than 900 physicians and 2,900 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons and is recognized as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

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