Amidst Donor Shortage, Bergen New Bridge Holds Blood Drive

PARAMUS, NJ — Amidst a national blood shortage, 40 people rolled up their sleeves to donate at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center on Sunday, a news release said.

The American Red Cross says it's facing the worst blood shortage in more than a decade. Since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago, overall donations have dropped 10 percent. College and high school blood drives have declined 62 percent.

The medical center partnered with Bergen County and Vitalant to provide much-needed donations. Over several hours, the drive produced 38 units of blood.

“With blood supplies at an all-time low, there is an urgent need for blood donations,” said Deborah Visconi, Bergen New Bridge President and CEO. “Working with our partners, we quickly converted our Vaccination Center into a large donation site to provide easy access for our community to donate, and the turnout was amazing, inspirational, and filled me with gratitude to our community.”

“I want to thank Bergen New Bridge and Vitalant for working collaboratively to make this blood drive a huge success,” said Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco. “The people of Bergen never disappoint and always stand up to help whenever there is a need. I could not be prouder of our County and I thank everyone who donated blood.”

All blood types and platelet donations are needed, according to the Red Cross. Type O-positive and O-negative are especially needed.

“We are so fortunate to have groups like Bergen New Bridge Medical Center partnering with us to spearhead blood drives,” said Rob Hatch, Manager of Donor Recruitment from Vitalant. “We were able to collect 38 good pints of blood from 40 registered volunteer blood donors at this event. COVID-19 has presented some difficult times for us all, but even so we are shown that working together can accomplish a lot.”

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