Blood Supplies Low: Please Postpone Surgeries; Donor Response has Been Good, But Supply of Type-O Blood Still Dangerously Low.

Business Editors/Health Writers

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 2000

City of Philadelphia Representatives Join in Asking

for Additional Donors.

The American Red Cross reiterated its recommendation this morning that surgeries for type-O patients be postponed if possible, and, together with representatives from the City of Philadelphia, asked for additional donors for the next six to eight weeks.

"Since Friday, we have thankfully collected more than 400 additional blood donations," said Scott Murphy, MD, chief medical officer of the American Red Cross Blood Services Penn-Jersey Region. "This is a good step in the right direction, but the situation is still critical."

At a press conference this morning at the Philadelphia Donor Center, 700 Spring Garden Street, Philadelphia, Red Cross officials stood with Philadelphia City Councilmen Frank DiCicco and Michael Nutter, who both gave their own donations, and Lawrence Robinson, MD, MPH, Deputy Philadelphia Commissioner for Health Promotion, to encourage blood donations.

"I would encourage all city employees to get out and donate. You can make a difference by donating blood," said Councilman DiCicco, who has sponsored Red Cross blood drives and been a blood donor for nearly eight years. "We don't think about these things until someone in our family or our friends need blood."

Nutter said while donating was important, he also hoped to disprove a popular belief.

"Politicians are often considered cold-hearted, unfeeling, and bloodless. Hopefully today we'll dispel one of those -- I let you decide which," kidded Nutter just before he rolled-up his sleeve to make an O-positive donation of his own. Nutter, now a regular blood donor, made his first donation after DiCicco encouraged him to give.

The City of Philadelphia and the American Red Cross will work together to set-up more blood drives for city workers, announced Robinson. They hope to include a plan for giving workers time-off for donating blood.

The current situation continues to be a crisis. "The simple math tells us that we'll have to maintain this concerted effort for several weeks before the blood supply crisis is over. We are asking all of our hospitals to postpone type-O surgeries that can be delayed," Murphy said "This weekend, because we have been conserving blood, we were able to support two liver transplants for type-O patients. They used approximately 30 units of type-O blood."

Hospital inventories of type O-positive blood are still dangerously low. There continues to be a system-wide deficit of nearly 1300 units, or 49 percent of hospitals' desired inventory of O-positive blood. A Red Cross physician reviews every request for type-O blood.

This morning, there were approximately 150 units of O-positive blood on hand at the Red Cross to meet the needs for approximately 100 area hospitals.

"We need to collect at least 500 additional donations every week for the next six to eight weeks just to meet the most critical needs for blood," said Murphy. "As our regular routine shipments from other Red Cross blood centers are cut, we need donors in our area to make up the difference."

Support from the community has been good. Over this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the Red Cross received nearly 2,000 phone calls from donors who want to help. On a typical Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 450 calls are received.

Every donation is needed but donors with type-O and type-B blood are especially encouraged to give. Donors are asked to call the American Red Cross at 1-800-GIVE LIFE (800-448-3543) to schedule an appointment to donate blood.

When you call the Red Cross to make an appointment, please know you may be scheduled to give blood over the next week or two. Additional donations are needed over the next six to eight weeks in order to return the blood supply to save levels.

At blood drives, please be patient. If you arrive at a blood drive that is very busy and you cannot stay, please reschedule your appointment.

The demand for blood is increasing more quickly than donations. In our area, demand this summer was six percent higher than in the previous year. The Red Cross is collecting blood to its capacity. We are taking steps to increase our capacity over the next several months to collect more blood in order to avoid other blood shortages.

In the Greater Delaware Valley and New Jersey, one in three units of blood transfused locally is given by a Red Cross volunteer in another part of the country and then brought to the regional blood center in Philadelphia.

As the need for blood has steadily increased, these regular shipments have been routinely cut by about 20 percent. Hospitals in the area have had a shortage of group O-positive blood, the most common blood type, for months as a result.

Most healthy people who are at least 17 years old and who weigh 110 pounds or more are eligible to give blood. In New Jersey, seventeen-year-olds must bring an American Red Cross parental consent form signed by their parent or legal guardian to the blood drive. Federal regulations require donors to wait 56 days between donations. Please bring some form of ID.

The American Red Cross delivers blood around the clock, and provides on-call medical and laboratory support to physicians and their patients in approximately 100 hospitals in southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey thanks to the generosity of healthy volunteer blood donors.