Hurricanes, back-to-school woes slow blood donations in South Bend area. Here’s how to donate.

MISHAWAKA — The days are getting shorter, and, unfortunately, blood and blood products donations also have contracted in the last month.

“Donors get busy this time of year, with kids going back to school,” according to MaryAnn Gast, blood donor recruitment specialist with the South Bend Medical Foundation. “When it comes to accidents, one person could use 10 to 12 pints of blood.”

While blood and platelet donations at the South Bend Medical Foundation go to serve the area’s hospitals and medical facilities, the American Red Cross blood programs serve areas outside the immediate area.

Both blood centers serve the needs of the public, and both are seeing a slowdown in donations and drives caused by several natural disasters and a general decline at this time of year.

Red Cross plea

Red Cross officials have called for donations because it lost about 30,000 August donations because of weather, power outages and other disruptions related to Hurricane Idalia.

“When Idalia slammed into the Southeast — leading to widespread power outages, travel hazards and flooding — the storm also forced the cancellation of over a dozen blood drives and caused hundreds of blood and platelet donations to go uncollected,” Red Cross officials said in a news release earlier this month.

Donors of all blood types are needed, with an emergency need for platelet donors and Type O blood, largely known as the universal blood type needed for emergency transfusions and for immune-deficient infants.

Both the Red Cross and the SBMF are scheduling a variety of fall blood drives to make up the difference.

Gast said the foundation has three buses that travel to businesses, schools and events for blood drives.

They go as far north as Sturgis, south to Marion, Ind., east to Fort Wayne and west toward Michigan City.

The pandemic affected the donation schedules somewhat. Convalescent plasma was gathered at the foundation, and, Gast said, donations are slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Settling in at new site

Gast said the staff also is getting used to its new corporate headquarters and its pathology and blood services center at 3355 Douglas Road in Mishawaka. The foundation moved from its former site on North Lafayette Boulevard in South Bend to the Douglas Road facility in November. The services that moved formerly were in a multi-story building, whereas the current departments are spread out in a sprawling building that formerly housed Memorial Home Care Services.

Gast said that although all people who are age 16 or older and who are healthy and meet other requirements can donate blood, the foundation is seeking to set up drives in area high schools by having friendly competitions for the numbers who donate.

“We get a very good response from high schools,” Gast said. “We hope to set up high school competitions where the school with the most pints donated gets a traveling trophy, then we can have the principal accept the trophy in the ‘Blue Drop Uniform.'”

The Blue Drop is part of the marketing campaign for the SBMF blood services.

Facts about blood

Here are a few facts about blood and blood donations in the United States:

● The United States’ hospitals use 43,000 pints of blood for patients each day.

● Less that 38% of the nation’s population is eligible to give blood.

● One in 7 patients in hospitals will need a blood transfusion, the most performed procedure in hospitals.

● More than 500,000 Americans donated blood following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

● A single vehicle accident victim can use up to 50 units of blood, meaning that 50 people would have had to have donated to serve the need.

Area blood drives

The American Red Cross will hold the following drives. Register at redcrossblood.org:

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 402 E. Coolspring Ave., Michigan City, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT Sept. 23.
• University of Notre Dame, 101 Duncan Student Center, South Bend, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 26.
• Mishawaka High School, 1202 Lincoln Way E., Mishawaka, 1 to 6 p.m. Sept. 26.
• The Michiana Event Center, 455 E. Farver St., Shipshewana, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 26.
• Triton High School, 300 Triton Drive, Bourbon, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sept. 27.
• Harvest Lakeshore Church, 5411 Cleveland Ave., Stevensville, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 27.
• Converge Community Church, 601 W. Buffalo St., New Buffalo, noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 28.

The Red Cross needs blood and platelet donors now. Schedule an appointment to give by downloading the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org or calling 1-800-733-2767.

The South Bend Medical Foundation will hold the following drives. Register at givebloodnow.com:

• Greene Township Lions Club, 24600 Roosevelt Road, South Bend, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 23.
• Grace United Methodist Church, 3012 S. Twyckenham, South Bend, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 24.
• Niles Buchanan YMCA, 905 N. Front St., Niles, 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 25.
• Doyle Community Center, 310 N. Franks Ave., Sturgis, 2 to 6 p.m. Sept. 25.
• Elkhart County Prosecutors, 301 S. Main St., Elkhart, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 26.
• Saint Joseph Health System-Plymouth, 1915 Lake Ave., Plymouth, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 26.
• Center for Hospice Care, 501 Comfort Place, Mishawaka, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 27.
• NIBCO, 1516 Middlebury St., Elkhart, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 27.
• Woodlawn Hospital, 1400 E. Ninth St., Rochester, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 28.

Email Tribune staff writer Greg Swiercz at [email protected].