PHOENIX (KSAZ) - You can help save a life by simply donating your blood and United Blood Services is in desperate need of it.
"We have exhausted out-of-state resources, we need local people to step up and give blood to Arizona patients," Sue Thew said.
Thew says the nonprofit is in need of all blood types.
"This is across the board with all blood types, in fact, for both O-negative as well as B-negative," she said. "We have 60 hospital orders that we're working to fill. They've unfilled hospital orders at this point because we don't have the blood to fill it."
Thew says shelves are empty because of summer travel and Zika virus restrictions. People have to wait a month after traveling to a country with the Zika virus before they can donate.
Hospital transfusions are also up by around 13 percent.
"That's difficult to plan for," she said. "Blood has a shelf-life, so you can't stock pile the blood one time of the year to meet the needs another time, we need 500 donors every single day."
Thew says they've added more staff and extended their operating hours at all locations to get more people in the door.
"We operate six donor centers and host about a dozen blood drives every single day," she said. "We need people to make those appointments today to give blood this week."
For more information on how you can donate, click here.