After years of advocacy from community members and elected officials, the borough’s only blood donation center opened in Throggs Neck on Feb. 25.
The Bronx location of New York Blood Center (NYBC), located in the Throggs Neck Shopping Center at 815 Hutchinson River Parkway, has plenty of parking and a brand-new facility that can serve 13 donors at a time, with each donation saving up to three lives.
While a diverse blood supply is always necessary, the new center, which joins 20 other NYBC locations in the tri-state area, arrives at a time of particular need.
In the Bronx, blood donations have declined by nearly 40% in recent years, and this year’s snow, cold weather and flu season have led to thousands of canceled blood drives and individual donations, according to NYBC.
And it’s not just a New York issue. Last month, the American Red Cross issued a “severe blood shortage” warning, noting that the national supply fell by 35% over the past month.
The ceremony to commemorate the new Bronx blood center included remarks from NYBC staff, Council Member Shirley Aldebol, and people who knew firsthand the importance of maintaining a healthy blood supply.
Borough President Vanessa Gibson said she once saw a doctor after feeling what she thought was normal fatigue, only to find out that her hemoglobin level was 4.6 — an alarmingly low level, given that the minimum to donate is 12.5. “The doctor said, ‘How are you walking?’”
Gibson said she spent that weekend in the hospital, where it took “several” blood donations to bring her hemoglobin back up. Between that experience and her mother’s diagnosis of renal failure, “I know what it means to have a blood center right in your community,’ Gibson said.
At the ribbon-cutting, Gibson was also awarded the Dr. Charles Drew Lifesaver Award, named for “the father of modern blood banking” who was the first African American to earn a Doctor of Medical Science from Columbia University.
Harlan Sexton, a City Island resident, recounted the terrifying story of how blood donations saved her daughter’s life.
In 2010, when her daughter Emily was 17, a drunk driver drove onto the sidewalk and pinned her to a wall as she stood at a bus stop. At the hospital, she required “a river” of donated blood, Sexton said.
Emily spent three months in the hospital, where she received repeated infusions and eventually recovered from her injuries. Today, she is married and works as a nurse, giving back to the community that brought her back from the brink of death.
Blood donors’ impact reaches further than they know, Sexton said. “You save the lives of people unknown to you. You save lives. You change timelines.”
Debra Kawalick, a member of Community Board 11, has donated blood and platelets hundreds of times and received every kind of special swag from the center.
Kawalick told the Bronx Times that after learning years ago that she had O-negative blood — the universal donor — her motivation to give kicked into high gear. But she had no choice but to travel to 67th Street in Manhattan, which was inconvenient and stressful, she said.
Now, instead of driving to Elmsford for donations, Kawalick said she is “ecstatic” about the new Bronx location that she and others spent nearly 10 years advocating for. She even created a t-shirt for the occasion with a photo of the new center, adding that she uses t-shirts to spark conversation and recruit more potential donors.
“I gotta put that good karma out, especially knowing I’m a universal donor. O-negative can save everybody in this room,” she said.
Bronx center hours are as follows:
Monday 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Tuesday 12:45 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.
Friday 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Sunday 8:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m.
Learn more information and schedule a donation appointment at this link: https://donate.nybc.org/donor/schedules/center/121
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
