The holiday season is upon us. It’s also the time of year people use to give to others. One gift that many in the medical community are looking for is the gift of life. Alabama health care providers say there’s a blood shortage, not only in in our State but across the whole country.
“It’s at a critical level. 20 years of being here I’ve never seen it this bad as far as our levels of blood products to help with our patients.”
Dr. Jeffery Kerby is the director of trauma and acute care surgery at UAB in Birmingham. Kerby said having a strong supply of blood is crucial to his work of trying to save lives.
“We take care of a lot of high acuity, complex trauma care, a lot of patients with active hemorrhage that we operate on, that we resuscitate with blood products. Without those blood products we will not be able to protect the community.”
When someone donates blood, they do it one pint at a time. But, Kerby said when it comes to some patients, they need a lot more than that.
“It’s highly variable but it’s not unusual to have a trauma patient, have someone with a bleeding issue that may not be trauma related, require 20 or 30 units of blood potentially be necessary to save that person’s life.”
Kerby warned that if the number do not pick up, doctors may have to make some tough decisions when it comes to saving lives.
“If a patient is requiring a large amount of blood product to potentially save their lives, if that level of blood volume replacement is reaching a critical point where we’re going to deplete the entire blood reserves of our hospital, it may limit what we are able to do to save that patient’s life.”
There are people working to bring the supply back up. Melinda Hines is with LifeSouth Community Blood Centers in south Alabama. She suspects the pandemic has played a role in the shortage.
“With the pandemic we’re looking a couple of years now here where we have seen a lot of challenges in many different areas. One of them, unfortunately, is that we have a major shortage in blood donations across the nation, not just here in Alabama.”
The holiday season tends to prompt the need for more blood products. People get injured putting up decorations, outdoor winter activities can land people in the hospital and more people on the roads leads to an increase in traffic accident. Hines said it is important for people to keep donating on a regular basis.
“When that usage goes up there of course is going to need more products and people have not been in the mode over the past year and a half or so of making sure they’re donating every 56 days.”
There may be some confusion about donating blood and the vaccine against COVID-19. Annette Rowland is with the Red Cross of Alabama, and she clears that up.
“As long as you know what manufacturer of the vaccine that you had then there is no deferral as long as you meet all of the other eligibility requirements.”
Rowland backs up what Dr. Kerby said earlier about the low level for this time of year and wants to emphasize the importance of rebuilding that supply.
“Actually, a little bit scary because we have seen our blood inventory drop to the lowest it has been at this time of year in more than a decade. We have hospitals that are scrambling because they have trauma patients they have to provide for. It’s definitely concerning for everyone around because it affects everyone.”
Rowland realizes that not everyone is able to give blood. But she said there is another way people who may not be eligible to give blood can help.
“We need platelets, and I don’t think people always realize if they’re not eligible to donate blood, you know the whole red blood cell, there is a possibility they could be eligible to donate platelets instead. So, if someone is ineligible to donate blood then maybe consider donating platelets.”
There are blood drive schedules throughout the state through both LifeSouth and the Red Cross of Alabama.