TYLER, Texas — Within hours of the massacre on Saturday, Carter BloodCare was one of many to send donations of platelets to help the El Paso shooting victims.
Last week Carter BloodCare held a blood drive to help the blood donation shortage in East Texas, since then the number of donors has increased. This helped with the quick response to send assistance to El Paso.
But now the organization is in need of more platelets donations.
According to the American Red Cross, platelets are small cells that live among blood and create clots to stop someone from bleeding. They must be used within five days after donating and every 15 seconds someone is in need of them. People who are fighting for their lives against a serious trauma injury, cancer, or chronic diseases, are among the people who desperately need platelets.
Clinton McCoy, with Carter Bloodcare says the process is painless and takes about an hour and a half to two hours to donate. "You can donate every two weeks," McCoy said "So it's very important for people to come out continually because it usually takes 24 to 48 hours to get the blood ready to be transfused.”
Mark Hilliare has been donating platelets for a few years and hopes to continue seeing people stepping up to helps others.
"I hope people will try to get out and donate blood or platelets and help the world that's in the medical and because it needs rapid turnover," Hilliare said. "We need to help our fellow human beings live longer and take care of them when they're in an emergency.”
The need for donations never ends, "continue coming up to donate we're not out of the woods yet, and we need donors to keep pouring in like they have been," McCoy said. "We just need people to keep coming out and try and let's keep it going, so we don't ever have to have a critical message again."
For more information on donating blood or platelets visit Carter BloodCare. If you would like to make a donation to the El Paso shooting victims visit El Paso Victims Relief Fund.