Blood
Blood donations needed as Red Cross falls 25,000 donations short
Aug
Hospitals are at risk of short supply with a lack of blood donors.
EUGENE, Ore. – The American Red Cross announced a shortfall of about 25,000 blood donations from the first two months of summer on August 8. This makes it difficult to keep hospitals stocked with lifesaving blood products.
As of now, the national blood supply has not officially reached shortage levels, but officials are urging those who can and are willing to donate to make an appointment to do so.
The Red Cross is especially in need of type O negative, type O positive, type B negative, and type A blood donors, as well as platelet donors.
Dawn Johnson, the Communications Manager for the Red Cross Cascades Region, said the shortage is not a surprise as it is typical for donations to decrease in the summer months.
“What we typically see going into the summer months is a drop in our donations,” Johnson said. “This is because people are going on summer vacation, and they’re just busy out doing summer things and not really thinking about coming in and donating blood.”
Johnson said, however, that the need for donations never stops, and they need it now more than ever.
“The need for blood doesn’t take a summer vacation,” Johnson said. “We’re always going to have patients that are going to need that life-saving blood.”
Hospitals need more blood donors as hospital shelves struggle to stay stocked.
Bloodworks Northwest is also a blood donation center in need of donations. Dylan Smith, a supervisor at Bloodworks, stresses that while there is always a need for blood donations, it’s important to stay on top of donations year-round.
“Bloodworks has a mission to meet this need – the blood supply, right,” Smith said. “It’s a mission we’re never going to actually achieve, right? We are always going to be in that need.”
With each donation of blood having the ability to save up to three lives, donation centers encourage people to look at the impact just one hour of donating blood can make.
“It’s really important to keep the blood on the shelves, and we can only do that with our donors,” Johnson said. “I think the greatest benefit to donating blood is to be able to save a life. I don’t think it gets much better than that.”
Appointments to donate can be scheduled on the websites of both the Red Cross and Bloodworks Northwest.
The Red Cross is also providing a monetary incentive where anyone who donates blood through the month of August will get a $10 e-gift card to a movie theater of their choice.
