Blood donors are needed now more than ever as the Red Cross is facing an emergency shortage.

The American Red Cross has declared an emergency blood shortage, saying patients are at risk of not getting lifesaving transfusions.

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Donors are needed now more than ever as the Red Cross faces a national emergency shortage, with the number of donors at a 20-year low. Medical director Dr. Eric Gehrie says the Red Cross has experienced a loss of 300,000 donors since the COVID-19 pandemic alone.

“It means that hospitals will order a certain number of units of blood, and those orders are not being filled fully,” he said. “So hospital blood banks are low on blood.”

Gehrie says the Red Cross supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood supply. He says emptier shelves could force hospitals to make excruciating decisions about which patients are prioritized for blood.

“Doctors have to make choices about which patients can receive a transfusion in a given day,” he says. “Surgeries like heart can be delayed waiting for the available blood to be collected and sent to the hospital.”

  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
    312·
    10 months ago

    Both the USA and Canada have made blood donation require more effort.

    Pre-pandemic you could simply walk into one of the many convenient blood donation center and walk out inside an hour having done all the test/paperwork and whole blood donation. Not only have they closed many donation locations, but also require you to schedule a donation.

    Further, some are getting more picky about what donations they accept. Canadian Blood Services stopped accepting American blood donors in 2020 (temporarily?). They’ve since closed the donation location (but are in the process of building a new one). Finally, they aren’t doing whole blood donations anymore and only taking plasma which requires apheresis blood donation. This mean instead of 25 min or so bleeding, from one arm, its 1.5 to 2 hours of having two tubes hooked up, one to each arm, and them shoving your non-plasma blood back into you.

    American Red Cross is requiring scheduled times the last time I checked. I was turned away at the door because of scheduling requirements on two different occasions and don’t think I’ll try for a third.