BELLEFONTE — The Centre County Board of Commissioners approved two proclamations at the Tuesday, March 12, meeting, declaring March as both Bleeding Disorders Awareness Month and American Red Cross Month in Centre County.
Marisa Ferger spoke on behalf of both the Eastern and Western Pennsylvania chapters of the Bleeding Disorders Foundation to shed light on issues surrounding bleeding disorders.
“Bleeding disorders are inheritable; they don’t discriminate. It affects both men and women, all races and all religions; they’re expensive diseases to deal with and it’s traumatic for families,” Ferger explained.
Ferger is a board member for the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the Bleeding Disorders Foundation, and both she and her 19-year-old son live with hemophilia A, which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a bleeding disorder where the blood does not clot properly, often manifesting in spontaneous bleeding and in bleeding following injuries or surgeries.
During the meeting, Ferger emphasized the importance of community support and legislative policy in addressing challenges people with bleeding disorders regularly face.
“The big thing is paying attention to legislation. There are obstacles in place for people who have to pay for medications that are non-generic and that cost a lot of money,” Ferger said.
She noted that policies such as the Affordable Care Act benefited people with bleeding disorders in many ways.
Ferger’s remarks also underscored the need for increased awareness and early diagnosis of bleeding disorders, dispelling misconceptions and promoting timely medical intervention. While disorders such as hemophilia A are considered rare, Ferger explained that only in the last 20 years have experts begun to understand how prevalent the disorders are and how they appear in women.
“For years I was dismissed and I was just told, ‘Your bleeding is normal,’ even when I was hospitalized after having a child,” Ferger said. “Both chapters of the Bleeding Disorder Foundation are currently going out to universities and schools to try and find more women to get diagnosed because there are so many women going undiagnosed since many medical professionals were trained that only men could have these diseases.”
The second proclamation the commissioners approved was to declare March 2024 as American Red Cross Month.
During the meeting, Megan Switzer and Gary Langsdale, community members and board members of the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross, spoke about the organization and its impact on the community. Switzer explained that since July 2023, the Red Cross has responded to 11 disaster events that impacted 38 individuals in Centre County.
“We have about 134 volunteers that are part of our mission here in the county. We also responded or provided services to 14 disaster, health and mental health events,” Switzer explained. “We’ve collected over 4,000 units of blood across 133 blood drives, we have served 98 people through our home fire campaign and we provide services for 40 different cases of the Armed Forces branch of Red Cross.”
Switzer noted numerous projects conducted by the Red Cross, all of which aim to impact individuals and communities experiencing unfortunate events and disasters.
Langsdale highlighted the Red Cross’s role in supporting families during times of crisis, including providing essential resources and assistance with recovery efforts. He also emphasized the importance of community engagement and preparedness.
“Many of the people and families that we serve are renters who don’t have insurance or homeowners who don’t have enough money to have insurance, and they find themselves without clothes and food and that sort of thing. Everything from their eyeglasses to their car keys may be lost in a fire, and we help them to get replacements,” Langsdale said.
