BANKS DRAINED OF BLOOD SUPPLIES.Byline: Ryan Oliver Staff Writer Blood banks are making an urgent appeal for blood as Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, faces one of its most acute shortages in years, officials said Tuesday. The American Red Cross American Red Cross: see Red Cross. is reporting less than a 24-hour supply in its blood bank, which is up slightly from a week ago when it had no supply at all. ``It's bleak,'' said Julie Juliussen, spokeswoman for Red Cross blood services in Southern California. ``Our representatives in the field say blood drives are not reaching their goals.'' The shortage here is somewhat worse than a national shortage that has reduced the blood supply to an average of two days. Ideally, blood banks want to keep a five- to seven-day supply, she said. As a result, many hospitals have been forced to postpone elective surgeries elective surgery Surgery Any operation that can be performed with advanced planning–eg, cholecystectomy, hernia repair, colonic resection, coronary artery bypass in order to maintain their stocks. ``We have done our best to ensure there's blood for trauma patients and certain emergencies,'' said Dr. Alyssa Ziman, assistant director of transfusion medicine transfusion medicine Blood banking A subspecialty of clinical pathology or internal medicine which is involved in Pt management through administration of blood cells and blood products including fresh-frozen plasma and cryoprecipitate; TM specialists are versant in for UCLA Medical Center UCLA Medical Center is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. It is rated as one of the top three hospitals in the United States and is the top hospital on the West Coast according to US News & World Report. . ``Patients who need it get it; patients who can wait will wait.'' ``This has certainly been impacting hospitals around here and across the nation,'' she said. Juliussen said blood shortages are common in January because of a drop in donations during the earlier holiday season. But this month has been particularly bad because the flu outbreak and cold, snowy snow·y adj. snow·i·er, snow·i·est 1. a. Abounding in or covered with snow: a snowy day. b. Subject to snow: a snowy climate. conditions across much of the country have left people less inclined or able to donate. ``Forty percent of our blood supply in Southern California is from outside the region,'' Juliussen said. ``Unfortunately, when they're short in other parts of the country, it affects us here because we're not able to import as much as we usually do.'' Juliussen said all blood type stocks are low, particularly the most critical two - O negative, the universal donor u·ni·ver·sal donor n. A person whose red blood cells do not contain agglutinogen A or B and are therefore not agglutinated by plasma containing either of the ordinary isoagglutinins, alpha or beta; a person who has group O blood. ; and O positive, the most common. For information on donating, contact the American Red Cross at (800) GIVE-LIFE, America's Blood Centers at (888) USBLOOD or UCLA's Blood Platlet Center at (213) 739-5200. Ryan Oliver, (818) 713-3669 ryan.oliver(at)dailynews.com |
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