Shortage of Blood Prompts Plea for Donors

Citing an “extremely critical” shortage of blood, officials from the Red Cross of Orange County put out an urgent call for donors Monday.

“We usually have on hand 100 units of O-positive blood . . . two complete shelves of it. We actually have on hand three units in the corner, and that’s it,” Red Cross spokesman Perry Patrick said of the most common blood type.

A typical drop-off in blood donors at Christmas combined with an influenza outbreak caused the shortage, he said.

“We never recovered from the holidays,” Patrick explained. “A lot of our regular donors that were supposed to give didn’t. And then there was this weird flu season; we can’t accept blood from people who have the flu.”

The Red Cross of Orange County has no units of rare O-negative blood, Patrick said. Normally the blood bank has about 50 units of that type on hand.

Because of the shortage, at least three Orange County hospitals have curtailed surgeries.

St. Joseph Hospital in Orange canceled some elective surgeries last week and was closely monitoring all surgeries this week, spokesman Dennis Gaschen said.

UCI Medical Center in Orange canceled several surgeries 3 weeks ago, and currently “we’re being very judicious about how we’re issuing blood,” said Lieta Maffei, division manager of the medical center’s blood bank.

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach postponed three elective surgeries last week, and “we’re evaluating elective surgeries on a daily basis,” said Maryellen Zimmerman, Hoag’s coordinator of blood donor services.

For all the concern, the Red Cross has a ready supply of blood types A-positive, B-positive and AB-positive and has about 90% of its usual supplies of AB-negative, Patrick said.

Zimmerman said she believes that the blood shortage is “probably the most critical” she has seen in 20 years. At Hoag, “we generally have 70 units of O-positive available, but we are down to, on any one day, 10 to 30 units.

“The Red Cross is our primary supplier of blood, and when they are down very low we are very concerned,” Zimmerman said.

Patrick said the Red Cross was urging all potential donors to call his agency and schedule an appointment to contribute. “We need O-positive. We need all blood,” he said.