PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The American Red Cross is sounding the alarm on a critical shortage of lifesaving blood, but it didn’t happen overnight. Blood donations are at a 20-year low, with a loss of hundreds of thousands of donors since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This emergency blood shortage unfortunately had been building over time,” said Dave Skutnik, regional communications director of the American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
“We’re seeing fewer donors coming out to drives as more people are working from home and we saw many schools and businesses close. And some just simply haven’t opened their doors to blood drives like they did before COVID.”
And that, Skutnik said, has very serious implications. Because of the shortage, doctors are having to make life-and-death decisions about which patients get transfusions. Hospitals are also delaying surgeries to wait for available blood.
The greater Philadelphia region is being hit particularly hard. Between southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, Skutnik said they need to collect about 4,000 donations a day to meet the needs of area hospitals.
Donations for the American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania fell 200 units shy of the organization’s threshold during the week of Christmas week, and 250 units this last week.
Now, cold and flu season and the recent extreme weather are complicating matters further.
“The weather this time of year also presents a challenge,” he added. “We had to cancel a blood drive today due to the location being without power. All of these things come together to make the emergency blood shortage even worse.”
All blood types are desired, but type O and platelets are most urgently needed.
“We need healthy individuals to donate now and throughout the winter to help patients counting on lifesaving blood,” Skutnik urged.
To learn about blood donations, visit redcross.org or call 1-800-Red-Cross to make an appointment.