It takes a few days for the collected blood to be processed, test, etc. and
it costs a lot. Better to give funds then blood.

After 9/11, even if people had been found, the donated blood would not have
made its way to them. Also, much of it went to places out of NY.

The important thing in an emergency is to keep up the volume using saline
or water, the body can cope with a decrease in red blood cells, but if the
pump runs dry there is nothing to be done.

"George Patterson" wrote in message
news:gOjTe.8951$rh.4561@trndny03...
Andre wrote:
During 911, many people gave blood, only to have a lot of it thrown out
because the red cross could not process or store it. Also most of the
victims did not need blood so it was a waste of time and money.

That's the way it turned out, but there was no way of knowing that when
the call
went out. Originally it was thought that there might be hundreds of
survivors
buried under the rubble. If that had actually been the case, they would've
needed to have that blood already drawn and available.

As far as blood storage is concerned, the Red Cross is no worse than any
other
organization. Whole blood doesn't keep all that long and plasma is of
limited use.

George Patterson
Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to
use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.