The Community Blood Council of NJ
Held a 2 Day Emergency Blood Drive
for The Cooper Level 1 Trauma Center in Camden, NJ yielding 157 pints of blood

Dr. Steven Ross, Director of the Level One Trauma Center at Cooper University Hospital and Professor of Surgery at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Cooper in Camden, NJ announced that there was a critical shortage of blood in the region. "The shortage is so severe that surgical procedures were being postponed. If there is not a timely increase in the blood supply in the region, trauma patients and those in need of emergency surgery could be impacted by the shortage."

The Community Blood Council of NJ responded to the critical shortage by organizing an emergency blood drive for Cooper employees and their relatives at the hospital. Kerwin Garcia, Sr. Account Manager at CBCNJ received a telephone call from the Blood Bank at Cooper Hospital at 10:30am, Friday July 18th and immediately organized a team of phlebotomists, nurses and support staff to go to Cooper in Camden, NJ to conduct an emergency blood drive. The team arrived in Camden at approximately 2pm to be greeted by the Cooper staff. The blood drive was set up in the hospitals auxiliary cafeteria. By 5pm, approx. 50 units of blood were collected. The drive continued until 7pm that evening. We committed to return on Monday, July 21st - which yielded another 115 units which were processed and returned to Cooper's Blood bank. The joint effort between Cooper's staff and CBCNJ exemplified an excellent collaboration in the ultimate goal of saving lives.

Chief Executive Officer of Cooper, Christopher T. Olivia offered his praise of Cooper Hospital Employees and the Community Blood Council of NJ's staff, "Their extraordinary dedication to our mission is demonstrated once again in going beyond the call of duty in donating blood so we can meet the needs of our patients."

The Southern NJ Regional Trauma Center at Cooper is the designated Level 1 trauma center serving the nine counties of Southern New Jersey. It is the most active trauma center in the entire Delaware Valley, providing care to nearly 2500 critically injured patients every year.

For more information,
contact Mark Jankowski, CBCNJ Public Relations Manager at 609.883.9750 x45

READ COURIER-POST ARTICLE HERE