What’s Up with Blood
What is blood?
Blood is the special fluid in your body made up of cells and liquid. Blood flows through your body helping deliver important stuff to keep you healthy. Here are some of the things blood does:
· Remove waste materials produced by cells in your body
· Distribute special chemicals, called hormones, which coordinate the body's growth and development
·
Fight harmful bacteria and viruses
· Carry oxygen and nutrients to millions of cells which are the tiny building blocks of the body
· Spread warmth
· Seal wounds and repair injuries.
Blood is made up of five major parts:
· Platelets are the construction workers in your blood. They throw themselves into wounds, grab onto each other using a sticky substance called fibrin, and make seal (or a scab) to stop bleeding and keep germs out.
·
Red blood cells
are constantly loading and unloading. It takes less than a second
for a red blood cell to unload its cargo of oxygen and pick up a
load of carbon dioxide waste in its place.
· Plasma is the liquid part of your blood and makes up about 55 percent of the volume of your blood. It transports and delivers blood cells, nutrients, and important messengers called hormones throughout the body.
· Stem cells in your bones give birth to new red blood cells. In the second it takes to blink your eyes, more than a million new cells are born and old cells are replaced.
· White blood cells can leave the blood vessels that transport them. They move freely among the body's cells seeking out and destroying germs. These germ fighters are essential to keeping you healthy.
Who gives blood?
Anyone who is 17 years old or older (16 year olds can, too with their parent’s permission) and weighs at least 110 pounds can be a blood donor if they are in good health.
People give blood either at one of Kentucky Blood Center's four donor centers (Lexington-Beaumont, Lexington-Andover, Somerset or Pikeville) or at a blood drive at work, school or church. Kentucky Blood Center has over 1,400 blood drives every year!
Does everyone have the same blood?
No.
Everyone has a different blood type. There are four main
blood types:
·
Type A
·
Type B
·
Type AB
·
Type O
A, B and O are called antigens. Everyone’s blood has at least one of these antigens, but there are over 600 other antigens that make up your blood, too, so everyone’s blood type is pretty unique!
Who has which type of blood?
· 45% are O
· 40% are A
· 10% are B
· 5% are AB
Why give blood?
Every two seconds, someone, somewhere in Kentucky needs blood, and you never know when you or someone you know might need it.
Kentucky Blood Center needs 400 volunteers each day to give blood. Only blood from volunteers can be given to a sick patient. And, some patients need a lot of blood to live.
There is no substitute for human blood. It cannot be produced in a laboratory. It must be donated by people.
How Can I Help
The Blood Donor Ambassador (BDA) program is designed just for kids to get involved in the blood donation nation! Kids who join the Kentucky Blood Center’s BDA program become leaders at their school, learn what it takes to get volunteers to donate blood and will get a cool T-shirt and other awards for their efforts.
Open the links below to get started as a BDA.
Student Info Teacher Info T-shirt
Scout
the Bloodhound
Scout the Donor Dog is a friendly bloodhound, who likes to sniff out blood donors. As the eight-foot tall Kentucky Blood Center mascot, Scout can be seen walking in parades, giving hugs and high fives at community events and encouraging donors at blood drives.
Although Scout can’t talk, he always has a handler with him who can answer your questions about being a blood donor or why donating blood is so important.
Scout’s schedule is pretty busy, but if you’d like to invite him to visit your blood drive or community event, click here to make your request and Scout will check his schedule.
Click here to view Scout photos
Click here to view the Scout Pledge
