amazing facts about blood

• Some Amazing Facts About Blood
• An adult body contains 10-12 pints of blood.
• It takes about 6-10 minutes to donate a pint of blood and 24 hours for your body to replace the blood fluid volume. The red cells may take up to two months for full restoration.
• One unit of blood can be separated into components and used to treat up to three patients.
  Whole blood has a shelf-life of 35 days. Red blood cells last 42 days, platelets only five days and plasma up to one year.
• The most common blood type is O positive 38% of the population. The rarest blood is AB negative 1%
• An average healthy person will be eligible to give blood more than 330 times in his or her lifetime.
• Less than 5% of the general population donates blood and yet the majority of people will have at least one family member who will require at least one blood transfusion in their lifetime.
  
  Almost 40% of the population has O+ blood
  
  Patients with Type O blood must receive Type O blood
  
  About half of all blood ordered by hospitals in our area is Type O
  
  Type O blood is the universal blood type and is the only blood type that can be transfused to patients with other blood types
  
  Only about 7% of all people have Type O negative blood
  
  Type O negative blood is the preferred type for accident victims and babies needing exchange transfusions
  
  There is always a need for Type O donors because their blood may be transfused to a person of any blood type in an emergency.