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Red Cross Short on Blood Donations

By Matthew Leaf

07/22/2014

(KTNC)--The summer has seen a dramatic drop in the number of people donating blood. The American Red Cross says they face a looming blood shortage, with donations down approximately 8-percent over the last 11 weeks, resulting in 80,000 fewer donations than expected.
According to Red Cross spokesperson Katie Marshall, the shortfall is significant enough that they could experience an emergency shortage in the next few weeks.
Marshall says they especially need types O-negative, B-negative, and A-negative blood, as well as platelet donations.
O-negative is the universal blood type. Marshall says they’d like at least 10-percent of their blood supply to be O-negative, but it’s now just three-percent of the supply.
Platelets are a key clotting component in blood that is often needed by cancer patients, burn victims and bone marrow recipients.
A person can donate blood every 56 days and platelets once every seven days. It takes about an hour to donate blood, and Marshall says all their bloodmobile locations are air-conditioned.
The bloodmobile will be at the 4-H Building in Auburn from noon until 6:00 p.m. today (Wednesday) and at the Nemaha County Hospital in Auburn from 8:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m. Thursday.
The Red Cross bloodmobile will be at Prichard Auditorium in Falls City next Thursday and Friday. Call 1-800-733-2767 or visit www.redcrossblood.org for more information or to schedule an appointment.

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