Shortage of Blood Looms Over Hospitals

In the days after Sept. 11, thousands of Ventura County residents--desperate for some way to help in the wake of the terrorist attacks--waited for hours to donate blood.

Although many were turned away when local supplies reached capacity, the wave of benevolence gave blood bank officials a respite after two years of shortages.

But the boom is over.

This week, a little more than six months after the attacks, blood bank officials are reporting a critical deficit in supplies that threatens to disrupt medical services at area hospitals.

“Our refrigerator is empty,” said Patty Hunt of United Blood Services, the nonprofit blood provider servicing all nine hospitals in Ventura County. “We are living hand to mouth.”

The blood bank tries to stock about 400 units of blood of varying types at its Ventura office. But because of a dearth of donors countywide, normal quantities to area hospitals are not being sent.

If more donors don’t step forward immediately, Hunt said, hospitals will be forced to ration.

“In another two or three weeks, there is not going to be enough blood out there,” she said.

Hospitals would be forced to use supplies based on need, Hunt said. For instance, elective surgeries might be postponed, she said.

“Remaining supplies would have to be used [only] for emergencies and life-threatening situations until the supply could be replenished,” she said.

Dan Zia, blood bank supervisor and an associate lab director at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, said conditions are the worst he has seen in his 24 years at the Thousand Oaks facility.

He said he is most concerned that a major trauma incident could overwhelm the hospital’s depleted stock.

In such an emergency, “it is very possible patients that need transfusions will not have the blood they require,” he said. “It could happen. That would be devastating.”

Acquiring blood from sources outside the county is not an option because all blood banks are running low, Hunt said.

“It’s very hard to find another blood center that has enough supply to support them and you,” she said.

To keep pace with demand, the blood bank needs to draw about 500 pints of blood each week. Donations are off by more than 100 pints a week, Hunt said.

Supplies began to dip in February because fewer residents were making donations. The downward trend has worsened in March, leaving blood bank officials scratching their heads about the cause, Hunt said.

“We just can’t seem to pinpoint it,” she said. “If we knew, maybe there would be something we could do to fix it.”

While blood bank officials believe a lingering cold and flu season might be partly to blame, they also look to Sept. 11.

Area donors turned out in droves after the terrorist attacks, but because blood lasts only 42 days, the organization had to turn many residents away. Now the organization is having a tough time recruiting them back to donor sites.

“It’s possible that people are simply burned out on charity,” Hunt said. “There were so many different areas of need.”

For information on where to donate, call (800) 715-3699.