Farming, ranching, meat processing, grain handling, and many other aspects of agriculture can be very dangerous. If blood is needed to sustain someone after an accident, there could be a problem. Following weeks of declining blood donations, the United States Surgeon General warned the nation that the blood supply has fallen far below the level needed to meet demand, and it continues to decline at an alarming rate.
The situation is so dire that for only the second time ever, the American Red Cross has declared a National Blood Supply Crisis. Abbie Arneson with LifeServe Blood Center says blood donations are urgently needed, and they’re needed immediately.
“I’ve been doing what I do in blood banking for 18 years. And in my 18 years, I have never seen such difficulties in getting blood donors through the door, whether it be at our donor centers or mobile blood drives. And for LifeServe, our collections in July, we’re talking 2 ,500 less than what we collected last July and where we need to be. And again, I just haven’t seen it before to be at this level. We always talk about that there’s a need for blood. It never goes away. But to say it is urgent is an understatement right now.”
Arneson says all it takes is one event, and the blood supply could literally be gone.
“We always shoot to have a three-to-five-day supply. blood on hand and right now you’re looking at a maybe one-to-two-day supply of O negative, O positive, and A negative and a two-day supply of all the other blood types two to three days and so that creates a massive issue in being able to take care of patients at our hospitals.”
Arneson says this type of shortage negatively affects patient care.
”And doctors are going to be forced to make decisions about okay, can we postpone this surgery because we need to hold on to blood for emergencies or urgent cases or do, we not transfuse a patient at this level and instead we wait until they drop to this level. And again, I just haven’t seen it in my 18 years get to this point. And so, this is where we just be honest and say it is an everybody on deck moment.”
Whether you live in a rural area, a metro area, or somewhere in between, Arneson urges everyone to reach out to their local blood collection entity to make an appointment as soon as possible. She also encourages people to reach out if you aren’t certain whether you’re eligible to donate or if you have been disqualified for one reason or another in the past. Through knowledge gained from medical research and advances in technology, many things that had previously made a person ineligible will no longer disqualify a person from donating blood.