Blood donations struggle to recoup after COVID pandemic

In January the American Red Cross announced it was facing an emergency blood shortage as it experienced the lowest number of people giving blood in the last 20 years. There are several factors at play to account for the decrease but while donations are down, the need is not.

Teri Benfer has overseen the donation drives in Dickinson County for several years and said the drives in the county are following the national trend. COVID-19 only made it worse, and they are still struggling to regain the numbers.

One area of decrease is in the school blood drives. With parents' permission, youth can start donating at age 16. During the school drives, there was education about the importance of donating and the younger students would often look forward to when they were old enough to participate.

When COVID-19 hit there were two years where the education and the anticipation of participating was gone.

“I still have a school that has not come back from COVID and having blood drives,” Benfer said. “I had such a positive experience with high schools in the past — until COVID. We would educate the students about the importance of becoming a blood donor and getting into high schools and have blood drives there.”

The high school drives often set in place a lifetime habit for people to donate.

The two-year halt to those drives took its toll on the numbers and it’s not just at the schools, a two-year break from giving has disrupted the cycle of giving.

The Abilene Community Blood Drive at St. Andrews Church has seen the pre-pandemic collection of 70 to 80 units has dropped to about 45.

“The one at the high school mirrors that because they used to collect 60 to 70 (units), and now they're down to 40 to 44,” she said. “The other one is at the hospital, that one's doing good. It's a small one, we can collect anywhere from 13 to 18 at that one. That one's been successful over the last few months, but we've also seen our dips there and of course COVID affected that one.”

During the pandemic the public was not allowed in the hospital so they could not have blood drives. When they started back to having them, it was only for hospital staff.

“Now they're allowing the public to come in,” she said.

Along with the pandemic-driven decrease, this time of year is often slow because of summer vacation.

There is also a generation gap.

“They've reached an age where they're on certain medications where they can't give or they have a health condition,” Benfer said. “What we're seeing is that generation that is so valuable and generous with their blood donations is aging out and those in the next generations aren't stepping up.”

She continued, “I had a college blood drive (recently) and signups were pretty low and then donors just weren’t sticking with their appointment. They weren't committed to their appointments — we had a lot of no-shows and it was a very low turnout. Everybody's life is busy and donating blood is not a priority.”

While donating is not a priority, having the blood available when people need it can be the difference between life and death.

Each pint a donor gives can impact patients in multiple ways. Some patients, such as trauma or surgery patients will require whole blood. Cancer patients, for example, will need red blood cells, or just the plasma, sometimes they too will need the whole blood. Red blood cells are also separated and given to premature babies because the red blood cells are what carry the oxygen throughout our circulatory system, Benfer said.

“We need to collect over 13,000 units of blood a day (nationwide), but only three out of 100 people give blood,” she said. “To me that is earth-shattering. The blood is there — we just need donors to commit and honor their appointments.”

Upcoming blood drives

To make an appointment go to https://www.redcross.org/give-blood.html. For questions or to make an appointment contact Teri Benfer at 316-558-7351 teri.novotny@redcross.org.

— June 27 at Emmanuel Church

— July 9 at St. Andrew’s Parish Hall

— Aug. 25 at Abilene High School

Fun Facts

— Three in 100 Americans give blood

— The American Red Cross introduced the first nationwide civilian blood program in 1948.

— The American Red Cross supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood

— Visit https://www.redcrossblood.org/faq.html#eligibility to determine eligibility to donate

— Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood

— The blood type most often requested by hospitals is Type O

— Only 7% of the U.S. population has Type O-negative blood

— Type O-negative is used for newborns and in emergencies before the patient’s type is known

— More than one million people are diagnosed with cancer every year. Many of them will need blood, sometimes daily, during chemotherapy

— A car accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood

— Donors can give either whole blood or specific blood components

— One donation can help save the lives of up to three people

— If someone begins donating at age 17 and donates every 56 days until they turn 76 years old, will have donated 48 gallons of blood, potentially helping save more than 1,000 lives

— The average adult has about 10 pints of blood in their body.

— Roughly one pint is given at each donation