A 92-Year-Old Colorado Man Has Donated Close to 50 Gallons of Blood

The average adult has approximately 1.2 to 1.5 gallons (10 to 12 pints) of blood in their body at any given time. If they choose to donate blood, roughly 1 pint can be taken every 56 days.

Loveland, Colorado resident Ron Reidy, 92, knows the rules pretty well. He's given blood on a regular basis for the past two to three decades and has now amassed a lifetime total of nearly 50 gallons.

According to the Colorado-based Reporter-Herald, Reidy arrived at the Loveland Police Department on Tuesday of this week to sit for a donation that would put him over the milestone, one that only 27 other donors have surpassed in the 75-year history of blood donation nonprofit Vitalant. Though an undisclosed concern during his health screening prevented him from meeting requirements and donating that day, he was still celebrated for his longstanding contribution to the state's blood banks.

Reidy initially donated blood platelets, which can be given up to 24 times annually, but switched to donating whole blood as he grew older. Reidy told the Reporter-Herald that he can't remember exactly when he began giving blood, only that it was sometime in his sixties or seventies.

It's believed that Reidy's 400 lifetime donations may have been able to assist in saving the lives of as many as three people each, meaning his blood could have been involved with as many as 1200 patients in need of a transfusion. Reidy said he plans to return to cross the 50-gallon goal line and was in good spirits, though he told the paper that a lack of other donors in the facility "pisses me off."

[h/t Reporter-Herald]