June 21, 2006 – HOVENSA announced that 115 units of blood were collected during a blood drive conducted at their refinery on June 14 and given to the St. Croix Blood Bank for use by the Juan F. Luis Hospital and Medical Center. This was one of the two blood drives held annually at the refinery. Donations come from the employees, their spouses, and the contractors performing services in the refinery.
Dr. Cora L. Christian, chief medical consultant for HOVENSA, stated that, coincidentally, June 14 was World Blood Donor Day, the date on which events are held worldwide to promote an increase in the number of people who are blood donors. It is also the birthday of Karl Landsteiner, the Austrian biologist and physician noted for his development in 1901 of the modern system of classification of blood groups. In 1930 Landsteiner received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
According to statistics at the Blood Bank, roughly 1,200 pints of blood are needed each year to meet the demand for blood on the island of St. Croix, and approximately 75 percent of this total is collected by blood drives at HOVENSA. "Without these blood donations, the hospital would be forced to purchase this amount of blood at an estimated cost of $250 a pint," Dr. Christian said.
She publicly thanked the blood donors and the cadre of professionals that included the staffs of the St. Croix Blood Bank and HOVENSA Medical and community volunteers.
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