Hoxworth Blood Center hopes to recoup blood donations with election day blood drives

Hoxworth Blood Center, University of Cincinnati, is encouraging their Ohio blood donor community to fulfill their civic duties by voting and donating blood on Tuesday, March 17.  

Hoxworth has released a schedule of open blood drives and donor centers that will be collecting blood and platelet donations from healthy individuals in communities surrounding Cincinnati on the same day as Ohio’s primary elections.

Donor buses will be at two polling locations:

• The South Lebanon Community Center at 83 N. Section Road from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• The West Chester Church of the Nazarene at 7951 Tylersville Road from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.  

Blood donations are especially needed now more than ever, says spokesperson Alecia Lipton, as the outbreaks of COVID-19 have resulted in dozens of cancelled blood drives.

“Between Monday, March 9 and Tuesday, March 17, there have been 436 lost units of blood as a result of cancelled blood drives at schools, universities and businesses,” says Lipton, who is the Public Information Officer at Hoxworth Blood Center.  “Hoxworth and other blood centers across the United States desperately need to recoup these lost donations that will be needed for traumas and patients with cancer. There is no artificial substitute for blood, and we are asking all healthy individuals to donate now so that we can be prepared for anything over the next several weeks.”

The below donor centers will be also open and accepting donors from 11:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.:

• Hoxworth Anderson, 7715 Five Mile Road
• Hoxworth Blue Ash, 9708 Kenwood Road
• Hoxworth North, 7844 Kingland Drive 
• Hoxworth Tri-County, 11812 Springfield Pike/Route 4
• Hoxworth West, 6323 Glenway Avenue

All donors who give on March 17 will receive a free St. Patrick’s Day t-shirt.

In addition to offering support for cancer patients, blood transfusions are needed for organ recipients, trauma victims, women in childbirth and patients with sickle cell disease, among other conditions. To meet the demand of local hospitals, Hoxworth has to collect a minimum of 400 units of blood and 40 units of platelets every day.

To schedule a donation, donors can visit www.hoxworth.org or call (513) 451-0910.