U.S. Blood Supply Critically Short; Holidays and Winter Blamed
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PITTSBURGH — Blood banks were begging for donors Monday and hospitals have postponed elective surgery after more than two weeks of harsh winter weather worsened the nation’s usual post-holiday blood shortage.
“January has absolutely killed us,” said Janet Welch of the American Red Cross Greater Ozarks-Arkansas, which covers parts of Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri. “We got through the holidays OK, then the bad weather came and people didn’t want to get out.”
Blood donations usually fall off during the holidays, when donors are too busy to give blood regularly. But blood drives were hit with a double-whammy this winter: Either the workers or the donors couldn’t make it because of bad weather.
“It was a risk to keep people here and to get people here,” said Bob Ensinger of the National Assn. of Blood Banks, which set up blood drives in the Baltimore-Washington area last week.
A stockpile of three or four days’ worth of blood is typical, but half of America’s blood banks have less than a one-day supply, Ensinger said.
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