News

A nonprofit blood center in the southeast is leading a worldwide search to find some of the rarest blood in the world to help save two-year-old Zainab, a South Florida girl who is battling neuroblastoma. If you meet the criteria, please donate!

South Sound Talk reports on a south Florida girl named Zainab needs a very rare kind of blood in order to battle neuroblastoma, a very aggressive form of cancer. 

Statistically, the only people who are likely to be a match for Zainab are people of Pakistani, Indian or Iranian descent. Of these populations, less than 4% of the people are actually missing the Indian B antigen.

OneBlood, a not-for-profit blood center serving Florida and other parts of the southeast, is leading a worldwide search to find donor matches, and Cascade Regional Blood Services island the American Rare Donor Program (ARDP) is helping with the search. If you meet the criteria, please contact us to make an appointment to donate.

MultiCare and Cascade Regional Blood Services celebrate 70 years of linking volunteer blood donors to local patients in need. The relationship between the two organizations has evolved to respond to the unique needs of the community.

Since 1946, Cascade Regional Blood Services and MultiCare have developed a unique partnership to serve their communities and provide life-saving blood products, including  red blood cells and whole blood, platelets, plasma, cryoprecipitate, among a number of other specialized blood products used for research and patient care.

The two organizations maintain a specialized team of MultiCare-credentialed registered nurses who perform services and procedures for both adult and pediatric patients. Some of these procedures include therapeutic plasma and red cell exchanges. They also provide whole blood and platelets specifically for pediatric heart surgery patients through their Baby Blood Program, as well as other special products collected from donors for ECMO life support, LVAD placement surgeries, and over 170 unique surgeries and procedures that are performed yearly in MultiCare hospitals and clinics.

These are just a few of the services and collaborations that are provided through this partnership, highlighted in South Sound Talk.

With many regular donors aging out of the donor pool, too few young people are stepping up to replace them. Campus blood drives are a great source of donations, but when school isn’t in session, this blood supply drops critically low.

Currently, South Sound Talk reports, more than half of all blood donations are made by people over 40 years old, and three-quarters of these are over 50. As the donor population ages, the need for blood intensifies. 

Millennials must rise to the challenge. During World War II, donating blood was viewed by people as a civic responsibility. Now more than ever, young people are needed to make regular donations a part of their lives—and not only in times of crises. Some millennials claim to be too busy to donate, while many report they simply hadn’t thought about it. By raising awareness we can bridge the growing gap to meet the needs of our communities.

South Sound Talks reports on how one Gig Harbor family channeled their grief into a call for kindness, blood donations

Baby Kent was born on January 9, 2018 with Congenital Heart Defect (CHD), a rare heart defect where one ventricle did not form. He died from complications after his first surgery. 

Kent’s family has channeled their grief by calling on people to do some acts of kindness, and posting about them on their Facebook page. They also sponsored a blood drive in his honor.

“I don’t know the reason. I am hopeful that there was one. But, as I’m hurting, I’m hopeful; hopeful that with the power of community and family surrounding us, we will overcome this huge and devastating loss.”