Blood is one of those critically important things in life that people tend to take for granted. That’s because although everybody needs it, everybody’s got it. Right?
Not exactly. There are times–like now–when the need is perilously close to being greater than the available supply.
The irony here is that blood is not in short supply at all. It’s all around you. It’s inside you. And you’ve probably got more than you need.
Yet Chicago area blood banks are facing alarmingly low supplies of blood because of a combination of factors. For one thing, the number of donors generally drops off over the Thanksgiving-to-New-Year’s holiday period because people are out of town or busy with shopping and partying.
And this year that annual dip in numbers has been greatly exacerbated by bad weather. Bitter cold and a foot or so of snow have kept potential donors indoors, and many of those who do make it to a donor center are turned away because they aren’t healthy enough to give blood.
LifeSource Inc., a Glenview-based blood bank that serves 150 hospitals and clinics, reported earlier this month that its reserves had dropped to less than a day’s supply, well below the usual three-day reserve. LifeSource now has only about 50 percent of its minimum inventory levels.
That’s bad news for everybody, not just those who are sick or scheduled for surgery, because a medical emergency can strike anyone anytime. In fact, the weather that has kept blood donations down also has increased the number of automobile accidents, creating more victims in need of blood transfusions.
In particularly short supply are type O-positive, the most common blood type, and type B-negative, which is less common in the general population but more common among African-Americans. However, all types are needed.
So if you’re one of the lucky millions of people who are healthy, between the ages of 17 and 79 and weigh more than 110 pounds, look in the phone book and give your nearest blood bank a call. You’ll be doing everyone a favor–yourself included.
