People need blood transfusions for many varied reasons. The most common are cancer treatment, accidents and routine surgeries. Other reasons that people will need blood are for burn treatments and heart and blood vessel diseases.

While one donation can save three lives, there are many patients who need more than the one pint that a donation collects.

 For example, it’s not impossible that a person injured in a car accident would need 50 units (pints) of blood. Sioux City native Doug Campbell suffered from injuries caused by a lawn mower and required over 200 units of blood.

Many patients will not only require blood, but also products that can be separated from the blood in our laboratory. Someone undergoing heart surgery may use six units of blood and six units of platelets. An organ transplant can successfully be completed with a variety of blood and blood products: 40 units of blood, 30 units of platelets, 20 bags of cryoprecipitate and 25 units of fresh frozen plasma.

The need for people to regularly donate blood is crucial because of the many ways in which blood and blood products can be used. Each patient that requires a blood transfusion has needs that differs from another depending upon the severity of the treatment they need.

The Siouxland Community Blood Bank is a prepared, capable and advanced organization that saves lives in over one hundred communities in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota.

State of the art technology is used in the Siouxland Community Blood Bank’s very own laboratory in the Sioux City, IA office. Every unit of blood that is collected is fully tested for maximum safety to the blood recipients. No matter how many times a person donates, their blood is tested each and every time before it can leave the laboratory, before it can enter the hospital and before it can reach its intended patient.

The Siouxland Community Blood Bank is proud to be the sole blood supplier to 37 Siouxland hospitals.