Manhattan —
On March 30, 2012, Ariel Fishman was dropping off his daughter at her Upper West Side school when he was struck by a cab and his legs were pinned between two vehicles. He lost both limbs and needed 70 units of donated blood to survive.
Nearly 19 months later, Fishman got the opportunity at a New York Blood Center event to personally thank some of the fellow New Yorkers who donated the blood that saved his life. He also used the opportunity to encourage more people to give blood.
About 2,000 units of blood are donated everyday for use in city hospitals. These donations are collected from an average of 45 daily local blood drives and nine blood centers. But New York Blood Center officials worry that the frequency of donations will wain during the holiday season, creating potentially dangerous shortages.