BLOOD DONATIONS ON DECLINE
Storms keeping donors home
The late-season snowstorms have left local blood banks in short supply, with 47 Red Cross blood drives canceled this month alone.
“In the state of Massachusetts, 1,389 units went uncollected,” said Kelly Isenor, spokeswoman for American Red Cross Blood Services. “That’s a big loss.”
New England has been hit three times in three weeks — with a fourth storm predicted this week — and blood donations are needed more than ever after statewide closings and snow removal kept donors inside.
“We’re constantly keeping an eye on the blood supply,” Isenor said. “We need to get those shelves filled up again.”
Massachusetts General Hospital’s Blood Donor Center has seen a 15 percent decline in donations for February and March, said the center’s manager Kim Cronin.
A high school drive scheduled for the day after last week’s blizzard was canceled because of school closings, and another drive that had been slated to take place in a company’s parking lot was scrapped because the space needed to be plowed.
The effects are felt for days leading up to the storm until several days after, Cronin said.
“It’s just sort of a domino effect,” Cronin said. “It just never ends with these backto-back storms.”
The center’s two “bloodmobiles” — large buses that travel to collect blood units — are responsible for procuring about 60 percent of the donations. When they can’t travel, Cronin said, the consequences are significant.
The Kraft Family Blood Donor Center, which is linked to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said the weather has cost them about 60 units of blood this month.
A unit, which is nearly a pint, is the amount given by each donor.
“It’s something you definitely notice,” said Dr. Richard Kaufman, the center’s medical director. “It’s enough that you have to be more restrictive about how blood products are used.”