By admin 
The American Red Cross declared its second ever national blood supply crisis Monday, urging immediate donations as blood supplies fall to their lowest levels in four summers.
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“It is dire,” said Nuriddin Ziyadinov, a regional executive officer at the Red Cross. “For us not to have the blood to be able to save lives, it will have consequences in the hospital.”
The Red Cross now has less than half a day’s worth of blood on supply, according to Ziyadinov. The organization said on its website has been forced to limit distributions of type O blood to hospitals.
Type O-positive blood is the most common blood type, making up around 38 percent of the population, according to the Red Cross. As a result, it is also the most commonly transfused blood type.
Blood also has a shelf life as the red blood cells age over time. In the U.S., blood centers can only store red blood cells for 42 days.
“Having a limitation in that supply chain for blood transfusions can be really significant,” said Sarah Barnhard, the medical director of transfusion services at UC Davis Health.
Barnhard said that so far the health center had been able to supply patients the blood they need. It has been testing patients’ blood types as soon as they’re able in order to reduce reliance on type O blood, and it has been reaching out to blood services providers other than the Red Cross.
Barnhard emphasized that donors don’t need to schedule appointments specifically with the Red Cross to help.
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“Any place that they donate helps the national supply,” she said. “It really is a community resource that we want to protect for everybody.”
The Red Cross had previously issued a call for blood and platelet donors in late May as scheduled donations, which account for 90 percent of all donations, dropped off, reducing the blood supply by several thousand units in the span of just a week.
The shortage worsened as the summer arrived, which is considered trauma season and a period of elevated demand for blood. In early July, blood services provider Vitalant issued a news release reporting that the blood supply had dropped to a two-year low. At the time, the organization, which typically strives to have four days worth of blood on hand, only had two, according to Kristin Connor, Vitalant’s northern California communications manager.
Barnhard said it’s hard to predict when or if the hospital will be forced to make decisions about who gets blood first.
“So much of this just relies on whether or not today, if people show up to donate blood, then tomorrow we’ll have what we need,” she said. “It truly is day by day.”
Ziyadinov urged eligible donors to help. “Whether you are in San Joaquin and Stanislaus and Stockton area, or in Sacramento and surrounding areas, we have so many different opportunities for people to donate and roll up their sleeves and be part of the solution in this crisis,” he said.
Eligible donors can schedule appointments to donate by visiting RedCrossBlood.org or by calling the number 1-800-RED CROSS.
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