Paul Szmal: Good morning 817, FLX Morning. It's Thursday, it's Guest-O-Rama edition. All four slots are filled today. Guest number three is Michael Tedesco of the Red Cross. Welcome back. Hi Ted, thanks. I didn't realize I was number three. Good number to be.
Yeah, we spent a lot of time this year talking about the critical shortage in the blood supply. Where do we stand as we enter this Christmas season?
Michael Tedesco: The blood supply is much more stable than it has been at really low dips that we experienced during the peak summer and disaster season. But the thing that we need to remember is that the blood supply is ever-present, or the need for the blood supply is ever-present. That procedures in hospitals, the patient needs for treating cancer, other types of diseases, those never go away. So anytime we get even the slightest interruption in people giving blood, it creates some problems. And typically the holiday season is one of those times when we have to reach out and really remind people the importance of giving blood.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, everybody has a lot of other things on their mind. So there's an incentive going on this month from now through the 15th. You'll get a $15 e-gift card to a merchant of your choice if you sign up and give. And it only does take a few minutes. I mean, you'll spend three or four hours shopping. You can be in and out in under an hour doing a blood donation.
Michael Tedesco: That's absolutely right. The actual blood donation itself would probably be done, depending on the type of donation you're making, 10 to 15 minutes. The rest is taking a health history prior to giving blood, taking some time to rest and recover after you've given. You know, we'd like to make sure people are leaving and feeling good as they leave. So the process itself is really quick and the impact is incredible.
Paul Szmal: And you make it even quicker if you go to redcrossblood.org. There's a button to start your Rapid Pass to get all those pre-screening questions answered. You don't even have to have the app for that. You can do that from computer, tablet, anything. And then, of course, there is the Red Cross Blood Donor app.
Michael Tedesco: Yes, absolutely. We're trying to make giving as easy and as quick as possible. So as technology advances, we're always looking for ways to make the donor experience a better one.
Paul Szmal: So remind us how these blood components are used, because the blood is separated into its component parts and used in many different ways.
Michael Tedesco: Yes, blood components can be separated at the time of donation. So if you want to get just red blood cells, we have equipment that's called apheresis and your blood is circulated or drawn and circulated through basically a centrifuge that's able to separate components like plasma, platelets, red blood cells. So if you just want to donate platelets, which are used quite a bit by cancer patients who are undergoing treatment that damage their platelets, you can do that. Or you can give whole blood and that can be separated later as needs arise. But yeah, there's the ability to do almost anything to separate components.
Paul Szmal: We always urge people to give blood. In order to do that, there have to be blood drives. In fact, we just got one on our community calendar that's coming up at Geneva General Hospital in a couple of days. But what's the process if somebody has never hosted a drive before and thinks maybe they'd like to do that?
Michael Tedesco: We have people ready to help them set those up. We have an entire team of account managers who do nothing but reach out to community organizations and try to set up blood drives. And they'd love to talk to people who are interested. And you can go to either RedCross.org or RedCrossBlood.org and you can find a path to talk to one of those folks. Or you can call 1-800-RedCross and just say, you know, I'd like to start a blood drive. And you'll have someone helping you in no time.
Paul Szmal: And if you go to the website RedCrossBlood.org, you'll see all these things we're talking about. There's a story of a cancer survivor who was helped by platelet donors. All about hosting drives. The RedCrossBlood app has now had over 5 million downloads.
So let's shift gears for a moment because one of the disasters on a small scale, but not always on a small scale, the Red Cross responds to are kitchen fires. And we're in that cooking time of season and the busy time of season when somebody puts something on the stove and walks away. So just remind us about some of the dangers and precautions to take so you're not a statistic.
Michael Tedesco: Yeah, not to throw a wet blanket over the holiday cheer, but you know Thanksgiving and Christmas, everyone's preparing big meals and there was a lot of celebrations where cooking is occurring. And it's really easy to become distracted. And as you mentioned, cooking fires are the leading cause of home fires in the U.S. and sadly lead to some fatalities.
So the thing to remember is keep an eye on what you fry because frying with hot oil is is one of the easiest ways for cooking fires to start. Basically unattended cooking is the leading factor contributing to cooking fires in the past. So again, if you're leaving your kitchen for even a short period of time while you're cooking, make sure things are in safe order. Ask someone else to watch what's on the stove if you need to or just shut it off temporarily. But you know, unfortunately it's one of the byproducts of big gatherings is we all like to eat and we all like to to feed our guests. So the risk rises just a bit.
Paul Szmal: So we always talk about doing it when the time changes, but maybe if it didn't do it this time, this would be a good time to check your smoke detector. Of course, the Sound the Alarm campaign, we'll talk more about that the next time one of those is taking place. But it's always good to make sure you got working smoke detectors. Any time of the year, if you don't want to do it when the time changes, just establish a pattern that works for you. And the holidays could be another one.
As you're wrapping presents or shopping online, take a few minutes to check your smoke alarms, change the batteries if need be. And if you've got an old alarm that's been in place for more than 10 years, it's probably a really good idea to replace it because smoke alarms are your best friend in terms of keeping you safe and getting you out of the house quickly in the event of a home fire.
Michael Tedesco: And of course, the other thing you can do, whether it's in biomedical services or in disaster response or in any other number of capacities, is to become a Red Cross volunteer. We'd love to see more volunteers. We had an incredible number of volunteers from our region who were deployed this fall, particularly for the hurricanes Helene and Milton. We had over 70 regional volunteers who left their homes and helped out the communities that really were impacted by those storms.
One of the consequences of that is that the fires and other types of disasters still occur back here and our numbers were a little bit short. So we're always looking for additional volunteers. You'll get a sense of fulfillment like you've never felt before because you're working right on the front lines and you're seeing the people that you were helping and the impact it makes in their lives.
So once again, the easiest way to become involved with the Red Cross in any way is to, again, go to redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS and you can learn how to volunteer, give blood, give a money donation if that's the way you choose to help out. It's the easiest path.
Paul Szmal: All right. Once again, if you go to our community calendar page at fingerlakesdailynews.com, we just got the notice in there is a Red Cross blood drive at Geneva General Hospital. I don't remember right off the top of my head the exact date, but it's in the next few days and it's a much needed time during the holidays. We appreciate the information that we get each time and thanks so much for being with us and all the other great people you've had on with us throughout the year.
Michael Tedesco: Oh, you're very welcome, Ted, and happy holidays to you and all your listeners. Hope everyone stays safe and has great times with family and friends.
