Blood Donations Overwhelm U.S. Centers, Erasing Shortage

After years of critical shortages in the nation’s blood supply, blood centers say they now have more blood than they can handle as people line up to donate to victims of Tuesday’s disasters.

The more pressing shortage, at least in some banks, is of bags used for blood collection.

“This has been a tremendous turnaround,” said Julie Juliusson, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross Blood Services, Southern California Region. “What we’re hoping is that for a lot of these people it won’t be the first and last time they donate blood. We’re hoping this is something they’ll continue to do for the rest of their lives.”

In fact, because the sudden spike in supply outstrips the needs of the survivors of the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the American Red Cross said it will speed up a plan to freeze blood for future use.

A frozen blood reserve could curtail the chronic shortages and help meet needs during future emergencies. Frozen red blood cells can be kept for 10 years. Refrigerated blood, by contrast, can be kept for 42 days.

Technology for storing frozen blood has long been available, but until recently, the need to use the blood very soon after defrosting has made it impractical for commonly used types of blood. The Food and Drug Administration has recently approved new technology allowing blood to be used for a longer period after it is thawed.

Still, dealing with frozen blood is more complicated than dealing with refrigerated blood. When blood is frozen, the red cells are concentrated and must be infused with an antifreeze chemical to prevent damage. The antifreeze, glycerol, must be removed before blood is given to a patient.

Dr. Peter Page, a senior medical officer at the American Red Cross, said Thursday that the group “greatly appreciates the outpouring from the American public,” but that because all blood needs for the disaster are being met, the Red

Cross intends to start freezing Type O donations, both rhesus negative and positive.

This is the blood type that is in shortest supply. Type B blood, also in short supply, may also be frozen, Page said.

“We have been working, thinking and planning for this for some several months already,” Page said. “With the recent increase of donations and concern for weapons of mass destruction, we are accelerating the implementation.”

In preparation, he added, new technicians have been trained in blood processing, and the Red Cross has ordered hundreds of new freezers. The frozen blood reserve ultimately will be stored primarily at five sites across the country, including one in Los Angeles.

Blood bank officials announced earlier this year that they were facing their first sustained national blood shortage. But that problem has at least abated as donations to blood banks have sharply increased since Tuesday.

“It’s one of those paradoxes. The tragedy brings people out. [Now] there isn’t a blood shortage,” said Dr. Douglas Blackall, co-director of transfusion medicine at the UCLA Medical Center. “But a month from now there almost certainly will be because there always is.” Normally, the American Red Cross receives just over 20,000 donations daily, Page said. Wednesday, there were 55,000. In Southern California, donations jumped from a normal 1,200 units a day to 2,575 on Tuesday and 2,338 on Wednesday.

Only 5% of the population typically donates blood, according to the American Red Cross. In Los Angeles, the figure is 3%, said Juliusson. Southern California has to import as much as 50% of its blood from other parts of the country, she said.

Other blood collection organizations have also experienced a sharp increase in donations--and although they say they do not want to discourage donors, they are suggesting that people consider pacing their visits.

“We recommend that they consider donating at a later date--over the next few weeks or indeed the next few months,” said Lisa Bloch, spokeswoman for Blood Centers of the Pacific, which collects blood for the Bay Area. “No one’s being turned away,” she added--but there are long lines, and blood bags are running low.

Blood experts stressed that the freezing of blood is not a sufficient answer to the nation’s blood supply problem. What is needed, experts say, are steady, regular donations from more people.

“Freezing is useful, but it’s not a solution,” said Dr. Ira Shulman, medical director of the blood bank at USC’s Kenneth Norris Cancer Hospital. “If we only have one-time donors, we’ll be right back to the same old chronic situation.”

Still, he applauded Americans’ generosity in this time of crisis. “The American public has done a wonderful thing stepping forward during a time of absolute catastrophic disaster and they are to be applauded.”

To donate blood, call (800) GIVELIFE, or (800) 448-3543.