Blood supply critically short in Borderland; donors urgently needed
EL PASO, Texas – It's something a lot of people take for granted -- blood. Here in the Borderland blood donations are always encouraged, but now blood banks in the area are asking for more help.
Vitalant, formerly United Blood Services, the non-profit blood bank serving the local community in the El Paso and Las Cruces regions, has declared a critical shortage of blood as blood providers nationwide have less than a two days’ supply of necessary blood types.
"This is something that we know is typical is cyclical however there seems to be more colds and flu, in fact I'm just getting over a cold myself and so we are seeing a lot of cancellations," said David Veloz, senior director of donor recruitment at Vitalant.
Back on Aug. 3, Vitalant had to turn people away from donating blood, because they had too much, but Veloz says blood can only last 42 days once it has been donated which makes it impossible to have spread out those donations.
For Vitalant, the busy holiday season resulted in over 21,000 fewer donations than expected. Due to the critical shortage, donors are strongly encouraged to give blood as soon as possible.
“We strive to maintain a 4-day supply of blood just to provide what patients need, and currently we’re at less than half that for certain blood types,” said Dr. Ralph Vassallo, chief medical officer at Vitalant. “Blood on the shelf helps patients every day—for traumas, cancer treatments and critical transfusions—and enables us to be ready if disaster strikes.”
Currently, all blood types and components are in short supply, with a special need for platelets and type O blood donations. Platelets have a very short shelf life—only five days. Type O-negative blood is the universal blood type that can help stabilize all patients. Nationally, Vitalant needs to collect more than 35,000 blood products per week to meet patient needs. In the El Paso and Las Cruces regions, we need to collect close to 350 blood products per day to meet local patient needs.
If you would like to donate blood, you can find out more on the process by calling 877-258-4825 (877-25-VITAL) or by clicking here.
