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January 11, 2022
The Red Cross has declared a national blood crisis and is urging the public to donate, saying historically low blood supplies are causing some hospitals to change treatments and cancel surgeries.
“In recent weeks, blood centers across the country have reported less than a day’s supply of blood from certain critical blood groups – dangerously low levels,” the Red Cross said in a statement. joint statement with the American Blood Centers and the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapy.
Typically, more than 45,000 units of blood and blood products are used daily in the United States.
“Blood donation is now needed to prevent the need to delay potential life-saving treatments. Some hospitals have already been forced to change treatment for some patients or cancel some patients’ surgeries due to blood supply problems, “the joint statement said.
CBS News reported that one person was affected by blood shortage Dreylan Holmes, 11, who has sickle cell disease and needs a blood transfusion. In the days before Thanksgiving, he had to wait two days for a transfusion.
“It wasn’t good to wait when I was in pain,” he said.
His mother, Vesha Jamison, said the wait was “very scary”.
“It was actually the first time we didn’t know when the blood was coming,” she told CBS News.
In a separate newsThe Red Cross said blood donation has fallen by 10 percent since March 2020, when the COVID pandemic first hit the United States. High school and college students gave 25% of blood donations in 2019, but gave only 10% of donations during the pandemic.
The Red Cross said that all types of blood are needed, but especially positive type O, the most common blood group; Type O negative, is considered a “universal blood type” that emergency personnel often use when there is no time to determine a patient’s blood type; and platelets, which are often given to cancer patients.
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