Blood donations are on downward spiral this summer

HAYS COUNTY — Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. is in need of a blood transfusion, according to the American Red Cross.

While the need for donors is essential, now more than ever, the American Red Cross is seeing a downward trend over the last two months, with 50,000 fewer blood donations than needed. But it’s not purely on the national level — local organizations and hospitals are also struggling with not having sufficient donations this summer.

Founded in 1951, We Are Blood is the sole provider of blood, platelet and plasma donations to all the hospitals within its 10-county service area. This includes Hays, Travis, Williamson, Burnet, Llano, Caldwell, Bastrop, Lee, Fayette and Burleson counties.

“That’s over 50 hospitals and clinics. All the patients at those hospitals who require blood transfusions, and we're talking about trauma patients, surgery patients, cancer patients, transplant patients [and] anyone needing a blood transfusion, are relying on a donor who has visited a We Are Blood blood drive or donor center,” said Nick Canedo, vice president of community engagement. “It's really important, vital work for community health. We've just been seeing over the last few years extraordinary growth in blood transfusion needs as a result of the growing population, increased number of hospitals in our area and the new amazing programs that those hospitals are creating for treating patients.”

We Are Blood understands that there will be a decrease in donations during the summer holiday season. During the school semester, more individuals will donate because of mobile blood drives hosted at high schools and colleges.

“That's a result of the summer holiday that people are going on. Basically, folks become busy with travel plans, schools are out of session and hosts are just hesitant to book mobile blood drives. Then, folks are visiting those mobile blood drives less as a result of all those plans,” Canedo said. “This summer is unique in that we're also dealing with this historic summer heat wave in Central Texas and we think that is impacting the turnout at those blood drives. We are also kind of seeing an extraordinary amount of travel plans this summer. I think this is the first major summer since the pandemic where people are going on their big vacation. All that is impacting how many donations we're seeing and how much we're able to supply to the hospitals … It's definitely a tough time for donations right now, which is why we're really encouraging the public, if you haven't donated before [or] maybe it's been a long time since you've donated last, summer is a great time to do so.”

The goal is to try to collect at least 200 donations every single day to meet the local patient needs at Central Texas hospitals, but Canedo said it’s been a struggle to rely on a certain amount of those donations to come from a mobile drive. This adds pressure for We Are Blood to encourage people to visit a donor center.

Because of its versatility in a transfusion, O negative is in high demand, yet only 7% of the population has that blood type.

We Are Blood is in critical need of O positive and O negative donations. Canedo said that when an individual is brought into a hospital as a result of a traumatic injury and physicians want to start treating them immediately, O negative is used before knowing the individual’s specific blood type due to the urgent situation.

“That's why O negative, the universal blood type, is so needed [and] O positive is basically virtually universal as well. O positive red cells can be transfused into any individual with a positive blood type and that's 80% of the population. So, that's a significant number of individuals who can receive O positive blood, too,” he said. “Any type of donors are really needed right now, as we're seeing such a significant downturn in donations overall, especially any type of platelet donation. Platelets are a very special component of your blood that allow your body to form clots [to stop bleeding]. It's your platelets that prevent bruises and cuts from becoming life-threatening.”

“But many different patients across Central Texas require platelet transfusions to live, especially cancer patients. Cancer patients often see a dip in platelet counts and so that means that they need to receive regular blood platelet transfusions just to live, navigate their treatments and get better. Platelets are an important thing that we collect [and] any type of donors are needed for that. They have very, very short shelf life. A collected platelet only lasts around seven days, which means that we need to be adequately collecting a certain amount every single day to meet that patient's needs.”

Donation centers and blood drives are not the only ones that have experienced a downward spiral recently — hospitals in the area have as well. Baylor Scott & White Health, which has locations across the state including in Buda, encourages Texans to continue making blood, platelet and plasma donations.

“We work with suppliers throughout the year to continuously replenish supplies of blood products at our facilities like Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Buda, and we have plans in place to continue serving our patients even in times of shortages,” according to a Baylor Scott & White Health statement.

To encourage more individuals to donate, We Are Blood is working to do frequent giveaways. For example, those who visit a mobile blood drive or donor center through the end of this month will receive an Alamo Drafthouse movie ticket.

The closest donor center for Hays County residents is in South Austin at 3100 W. Slaughter Lane. However, there are several upcoming blood drives in July in Hays County listed below.

• Kyle United Methodist Church on Sunday, July 23: www.wrbdonor.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/63612

• Heart to Heart Hospice in San Marcos on Thursday, July 27: www.wrbdonor.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/64026

• Cypress Forest Neighborhood Association on Saturday, July 29: www.wrbdonor.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/63865

• Katherine Anne Porter School in Wimberley on Monday, July 31: www.wrbdonor.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/64000

To learn more about how to support the community through a donation, visit www.weareblood.org or follow We Are Blood’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/wearebloodtx.