Sycuan Receives Name Recognition on SD Blood Bank Bloodmobile

New Vehicles Expected to Impact Up To 27,000 Lives Each Year

On Thursday, December 1, the San Diego Blood Bank held a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony to celebrate the addition of two new bloodmobiles to their fleet of lifesaving vehicles.

As a major supporter of Campaign for Life, Sycuan Casino Resort was instrumental in helping the Blood Bank acquire one of the vehicles, which play a vital role every day in the Mobile Blood Collection Program.

Bloodmobiles collect approximately 50% of our blood supply, making an enormous impact on the lives of the patients the Blood Bank serves. As a lead donor, Sycuan Casino Resort received name recognition on one of the bloodmobiles.

These new bloodmobiles are expected to collect more than 27,000 donations annually. Since each bloodmobile’s life span is approximately 15 years, these buses could potentially help save hundreds of thousands of lives in our community and beyond.

 About the Blood Bank

In the early years, San Diego Blood Bank collected stored and distributed blood products to hospitals in San Diego County just as it does today. Unlike those early years, however, when San Diego Blood Bank paid donors, the total amount of blood now brought into San Diego Blood Bank is provided by a 100% volun­teer donor effort. In 1968, 4,000 units of blood a month supplied the needs of our local hospitals. We now process approximately 10,000 units of blood per month and serve hospitals throughout Southern California.

San Diego Blood Bank o provides the Southern California region’s hospitals with a wide range of blood banking services. These include blood collection, component preparation, platelet­pheresis, plasmapheresis, leukapheresis, washed blood, frozen blood, autologous storage, designated donation services and a reference laboratory­. The Cell Therapy Program of San Diego Blood Bank operates the Cord Blood Program providing lifesaving stem cell transplants to patients worldwide.

Today, San Diego Blood Bank is growing to meet the changing needs of our health care community. We now supply hospitals in four Southern California counties. These counties include San Diego, Imperial, Orange, and Los Angeles. Frozen blood laboratories are now operated to accommodate the storage of frequently used and rare blood types, and for patients who wish to donate blood for their own future use. We also offer continuing education for the blood bank communi­ty.

For more information or to learn how you can get involved please visit sandiegobloodbank.org.