Winter weather makes blood shortages even more severe

By Kirsten Stokes

The number of people donating blood has fallen by about 40% during the last 20 years, leading to critical shortages in a life-saving necessity.

Worsening shortages in the last four years have led to an almost constant state of emergency for needed blood. Joann Woody, executive director of the Red Cross of Greater Kansas City and Northwest Missouri, said it’s a frightening situation for patients who urgently need transfusions.

“That means that our supplies are low and the resources for those hospitals and other medical facilities are going down,” Woody said. “That means they may have trouble meeting the needs of patients who so desperately need those donations to stay healthy and in order to save their lives.”

In addition to the nationwide shortages, winter weather like we’ve experienced during the last week has caused blood drives to be called off, further straining already low resources.

“We’ve had several blood drives canceled,” Woody said. “So we’ll have to work to kind of make sure we’re really supporting our next round of blood drives later in the week.”

As temperatures continue to drop, people decide not to get out in unsafe conditions and donate.

Woody says patients who consistently need transfusions are among those most impacted by shortages.

“Those who come into the hospital and they’re told, ‘We’re sorry, your regular treatment that we do every six weeks, we’re going to have to push that off to eight weeks,’ those are the people that are going to be affected.”

To learn more about donating blood and how you can host a drive in your area visit Redcross.org.