From the crook of your arm to the veins of a person in the hospital, units of blood can travel thousands of miles from the time it is donated to its destination of a patient’s IV bag.

And depending on what agency you donate to — American Red Cross, Vitalant and Community Blood Bank are the most active in Butler County — the destination of your blood can widely vary.

According to Nicole Roschella, communications director with the American Red Cross of Greater Pennsylvania, most blood donated in Butler County goes to a processing center in Johnstown, one of a few centers the Red Cross has in Pennsylvania. From there, each unit is separated into red blood cells, plasma and platelets, which can each be transported to different locations depending on the need.

And with the Red Cross reportedly supplying 40% of the nation’s blood, Butler County units can end up in a variety of places.

“We are getting blood donations in through that processing center from multiple states and then from there, your blood is also being taken to multiple states,” Roschella said. “I think the coolest part is when your blood is transfused you can get a notification and you see where that blood was.”

Each of the blood collection agencies that have drives in Butler County have networks that help those units get where they need to go.

Community Blood Bank has its headquarters in Erie, but the bank distributes blood to 17 hospitals and seven stat med evacuation bases in Western Pennsylvania, so it utilizes multiple transportation methods to quickly get blood where it needs to be.

Megan Solensky, community relations specialist for Community Blood Bank, explained that the hospitals the agencies supplies blood to make requests for the number of units of red blood cells, plasma and platelets they need. The organization works within its network to get the supply to where it needs to be.

“The hospitals will let us know, ‘Here's our supply on a daily basis,’ and so many units will go out,” Solensky said. “We're able to move things around. If something happens we're prepared.”

Vitalant also works in Western Pennsylvania, and serves 63 hospitals in the region.

Maya Santana, communications manager for Vitalant, said blood units donated at drives in Butler County are delivered to hospitals across Western Pennsylvania based on needs. She also explained what each type of blood unit might be used for in a hospital.

“Red blood is used for trauma and injuries; platelets are needed by cancer patients; plasma treats burns and clotting disorders,” Santana said. “Blood is transported locally by ground, and by air across the country.”

It starts with a donor at a local blood drive. The typical donation lasts about an hour, with the actual blood draw only lasting about 15 minutes. For Vitalant, the donated units are assigned a unique donation center, allowing it to be tracked in Vitalant's system. It's put in a temperature-controlled environment and transported through ground transport or courier services. Once a donation arrives at a processing center, it's separated into red blood cells, platelets and plasma by a centrifuge.

Blood units need to be stored in specific ways to keep it viable as long as possible, although the longest a unit can last even in storage is one year.

Santana said red blood cells are kept refrigerated, plasma gets frozen and platelets are kept at room temperature — but platelets only have a shelf life of five days. Red blood lasts about six weeks and plasma can be frozen for about a year.

Roschella said Red Cross has bases around the country where blood is circulated to get to the needed places. She said that blood is first distributed to the places nearest to the storage site it is in.

“The local needs are met first — if my blood was a match for a patient in need, we’re using that blood and getting it where it needs to go. The radius kind of zooms out from that point,” she said. “I think the coolest part is when your blood is transfused you get a notification and you see where that blood was used.”

Vitalant’s area network , and as Solensky explained, Community Blood Bank supplies mainly to Western Pennsylvania and Western New York.

But before the blood is stored and transported to a hospital, these blood banks test samples from each donor to ensure it is healthy and able to be transfused into another person.

“Your test tubes are being tested,” Roschella said. “First they want to know your blood type and then they're testing for infectious diseases as well.”

The three blood bank staffers agreed that even though they have networks of blood drives, storage sites and transportation methods for their donations, it is still a regular struggle to keep up with the demand — the need.

Solensky said the Community Blood Bank gets blood from drives around Butler County, but if you see Community Blood Bank signage in this region, it came all the way from Erie to be there.

The need for blood is great even within Western Pennsylvania, Solensky said, and it dips into dangerous territory at times.

“That is happening kind of nationwide; we are seeing shortages within our network as well,” Solensky said. “We primarily need O, but we do need all blood types.”

Solensky said the Community Blood Bank has up to five blood drives in Butler County each month. Vitalant hosts 200 mobile blood drives in its region per year, and operates eight donation centers, according to Santana. The Red Cross has hundreds of drives in the region per year, and all three agencies have community partners who help coordinate mobile drives in a particular area.

Vitalant and Red Cross use volunteers and staff members to transport blood to where it needs to be. Santana said Vitalant has couriers and ground transportation services, and Roschella said people can sign up to provide transportation services for Red Cross blood units.

Solensky said she was surprised at the network of carriers Community Blood Bank uses to get blood around just Western Pennsylvania.

“They have different routes that take blood places. I knew they had the drives everywhere but it was cool to learn,” she said.

All three staff members also pointed out that blood is always needed because it cannot be manufactured.

Santana said one blood donation can impact several people thanks to donated units being separated into three parts, and Roschella said it only takes a little time out of someone’s day to make this impact.

“We can't manufacture blood, we have a lab to test it but we can't create it,” Roschella said, “and your donation lasts an hour but the actual blood draw is only six to eight minutes.

“It's a really fast process to make a big impact.“

For information on the Red Cross, Vitalant or Community Blood Bank and their blood donation schedules, visit their websites.