January Is National Blood Donor Month…Come Out & Donate! OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (January 18, 2008) – The Oklahoma Blood Institute (OBI) and Logan Medical Center would like to encourage all healthy individuals to come out and support the community and donate blood during National Blood Donor Month at Logan Medical Center on Tuesday, January 22 from 1:30 until 6 p.m. The blood drive will be held in the cafeteria at the hospital. Giving the gift of life by becoming a blood donor is a gift of health to your neighbor and to yourself, and there is no better time to start than January – National Volunteer Blood Donor Month. Each OBI donor will receive FREE health check readings on body temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate and cholesterol and iron levels. In addition donors may enter to WIN a 2008 Saturn Sky Sports Car donated by Bob Moore Saturn of Oklahoma City. Every two seconds, someone needs blood. In the United States, approximately 39,000 units of blood are transfused per day in hospitals and emergency treatment facilities to patients with cancer and other diseases, to organ transplant recipients, and to help save the lives of accident victims. In one year alone, as many as five million patients will require blood transfusions. Across Oklahoma only 10% of the healthy population actually donates consistently and yet steady donation throughout the year is crucial to sustaining our community blood supplies for all Oklahomans. “OBI blood donors are ‘givers’ who know that blood donations offer health, hope, healing and comfort to patients in our local communities,” says John Armitage, President and CEO of OBI. “OBI is asking all healthy Oklahomans to strongly consider becoming a regular blood donor. If all who are eligible to donate would do so three to four times per year, shortages could become a thing of the past.” Oklahoma Blood Institute is the eighth largest regional, non-profit blood center in the U.S. and provides transfusion blood products and clinical services to 110 hospitals in Oklahoma and North Central Texas. For more information about donating at the drive call Cathie Cordis at 260-4170.