Type O blood critically low as Red Cross declares national crisis
Red Cross faces type O blood shortage
The Red Cross has officially declared a national blood supply crisis, and it’s only the second time they've ever done so. The Red Cross says blood donations have dropped to a four-year summer low. The blood supply dropped about 25% in July, and donor turnout has continued to free fall.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - The American Red Cross is sounding the alarm on a national blood shortage, and it has hospitals in our area taking a detailed look at their stockpiles while the Red Cross looks for more donors.
Big picture view:
The Red Cross has officially declared a national blood supply crisis, and it’s only the second time they've ever done so.
The Red Cross says blood donations have dropped to a four-year summer low. The blood supply dropped about 25% in July, and donor turnout has continued to free fall.
Dig deeper:
The shortage hits Type O blood the heaviest. The organization says it has less than a one-day supply of Type O-positive blood left nationally. That’s the most commonly transfused type and the universal option for ER teams and trauma caregivers.
It’s so serious the Red Cross has started limiting the amount of Type O blood sent to hospitals, requiring some medical centers to ration supplies or delay non-urgent procedures that require transfusions. But the situation varies by hospital.
"We just had a perfect storm of the parasite that went around, the extreme heat, students have been out of school, those on vacation, just a lot of things that’s not having donations at the top of mind, and so we need people to roll up their sleeves and come in and give blood," said DeAndra Smith from American Red Cross.
"We’ve been notified by our blood supplier that there is a shortage of particularly group O-positive and O-negative red blood cells," said DMC Blood Bank Medical Director Dr. Tammon Nash. "We closely monitor our blood supply on a daily basis, and right now we are adequately supplied to meet our patient needs, but we do keep an eye on things day to day."
What you can do:
Blood centers around the area and beyond are asking healthy, eligible people to schedule appointments right away to donate. The Red Cross says if just a few more donors show up at each active drive location, that would be enough to stabilize the supply.