The real test of a community is cooperation.

And if there's one place in our community where cooperation really is a matter of life and death, it's here at the Central Blood Bank of Pittsburgh.

It's hard to understand why our blood bank would ever face a blood shortage.

When giving blood is so simple and so painless.

The first step is an application Basic information like name and address and then go straight down.

If it is, that means your blood comes above normal that you have enough blood for yourself and enough extra to donate without any affection at all.

Then a technician asks 20 questions to see if there is any reason the donor should not give blood.

She performs a quick physical temperature, blood pressure, and a preliminary blood test.

All of this is done to be sure that the donor is healthy enough to give blood, and that the blood is healthy enough to be received by a patient.

The preliminaries take less than ten minutes.

Now the donor is ready to give a unit of blood.

An average of 350 units are needed each day to supply 29 area hospitals that rely on the Central Blood bank for blood.

So you're one time.

If enough blood isn't available, like during the shortage in January, then surgery must be canceled.

And if it gets severe enough, someone could die.

The red blood cells are good for 21 days, frozen.

I mean, 21 days refrigerated.

We are freezing them on a small scale.

Actually, giving the blood only takes five minutes and the donor sits in the lounge for 10 or 15 minutes, eats a donut, and drinks some juice or coffee.

The total time is usually less than 45 minutes.

Now we have to mix this.

There's some anticoagulant solution in here so that the blood doesn't clot.

Someone at the blood bank figured out that if every healthy Allegheny County resident gave blood, a donation would be needed once every ten years.

But as it is now, 7% of our population is carrying the load for everyone, and some give as often as four times a year.

Doesn't everyone belong to the Central Blood Bank, whether they know it or not?

I'm delighted you asked that question and I'm especially pleased the way you phrased it, because it is so true that it is Central Blood Bank's responsibility, in concert with the community, to supply the blood when it is needed.

None of us know when we're going to need it.

It can't really be planned for, and we must work together, helping each other to be able to have the blood available when it is needed, where it is needed, by whom needs it.