Blood Facts

One whole blood donation can save and enhance the lives of up to three patients.

Every two seconds someone in the U.S. requires a transfusion of donated blood.

You can donate whole blood every 56 days, up to six times per year.

Less than four percent of Colorado's population donates blood.

Whole blood contains red blood cells, platelets, plasma and white blood cells.

Blood is produced inside the bone marrow.

The need for blood is constant.  Red blood cells are useable for only 42 days and platelets are useable for only five days.

Blood products are used in a variety of medical treatments including helping kids with cancer feel better and saving the lives of car accident victims.

Red blood cells carry oxygen to all parts of the body and are needed most after significant blood loss through trauma or for patients undergoing surgery or experiencing anemia.

Platelets are essential for blood clotting and are routinely needed to support cancer therapy, open-heart surgery, blood disorders and organ transplants.

Plasma is the liquid portion of the blood and is used to treat patients with severe burns and clotting disorders.

An organ transplant patient may need up to 100 units of blood.

Bonfils needs more than 4,000 volunteers to give blood each week to meet Colorado's needs and to be prepared for unforeseen events.

If all blood donors gave two to four times a year, it would help prevent blood shortages.

If you started donating at age 17, you could potentially donate more than 300 times, helping more than 900 patients by the time you turn 70.

Bonfils’ highest gallon donor has donated 65 gallons of blood (520 pints).

All blood types are needed.  Often the most common blood types are the most frequently transfused.

O- blood type is the universal donor.  O- blood can be transfused to any patient regardless of their blood type.

The most common blood types are O+ and A+. 

It takes less than an hour to make a whole blood donation.

After one unit of blood is donated, the body replaces the plasma within 24 hours, the platelets within 48 hours and the red blood cells within 56 days.

Your body produces four to five billion red blood cells in an hour.

The average adult body contains 10 to 12 pints of blood.

Bonfils Blood Center currently provides more than 80 percent of Colorado’s blood supply.

Bonfils has nine community donor centers and as many as 13 mobile blood drives each day, making donating blood an easy and convenient way to volunteer.

A blood donation given to Bonfils is typically shipped to a hospital or community in need within 48 hours of your donation.

Bonfils Blood Center provides blood and blood products to more than 200 hospitals and healthcare facilities in Colorado and beyond.

Bonfils Blood Center efficiently uses more than 97percent of donated blood.