An urgent plea for more blood donations
Gulf Coast center needs to replenish supply after storm
The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center has issued an urgent plea for blood donations following the devastating effects of the recent winter storm that blanketed the area with snow, ice and bitter-cold low temperatures.
“We were greatly impacted by the winter storm,” said Cameron Palmer, community development coordinator for the center.
“We went several days without the ability to collect and now we’re down to less than a oneday’s supply of blood,” he said.
The blood drive and walk-in donations were canceled during the week of Feb. 14, he said, because the facilities were dependent upon water and electricity. Without those, they couldn’t host the life-saving blood drives.
Although power and water has been mostly restored in the Gulf Coast area, it doesn’t make up for the more than 3,000 blood units lost during the storm. That number continues to rise as the number of donations trickles back in.
The center typically takes in approximately 1,000 donations per day to serve the Texas Medical Center and some 170 hospitals and health care facilities over a 26-county area that includes Houston and surrounding communities.
Palmer said the 1,000 number might sound low but they’re vital to the center’s mission.
“Those 1,000 donations can save around 3,000 lives depending on how the blood is used,” he said.
“The need for blood doesn’t stop,” he added. “You have cancer patients who are going through chemotherapy who need platelets, surgeries and so many other reasons why patients need blood.”
Some have blood diseases that require regular transfusions. Others, he said, require the blood products for trauma and organ transplants.
The center works to schedule enough blood drives each day throughout the year to meet the need. With many of the mobile blood drives canceled, donors were left with few places to donate, especially in the inclement weather with treacherous road conditions.
Palmer said the center was asking the public for two things: For individual donors to come into area donor centers and for churches, organizations, schools and companies to set up blood drives.
Hosting a drive is free and only requires a parking lot or building with lights and water.
“Anyone with a venue or parking lot they will donate for a collection site, we would really appreciate it,” he said. The Blood Center does all the setup and furnishes the personnel.
After the storm, HCA Houston Healthcare North Cypress was carefully watching its blood supply, knowing that a shortage was coming.
“We have returned to normal operations after last week’s winter storm,” said Jim Brown, CEO at HCA Houston Healthcare North Cypress.
“We have no restrictions on our blood supply or utilization levels,” he said. “After hearing about the critically low blood supply levels that the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center has been experiencing due to the storm, we reached out to the Blood Center to see how we could help.”
“Within a week, on Wednesday, Feb. 24, we were able to host a blood drive,” Brown said.
The hospital was able to fill each of the appointment times and provided 40 units of blood.
“We hope to bring the blood drives back to our facility on a quarterly basis,” he said.
Other hospital systems are also back to normal.
“Our chief of quality said that our blood supply is stable now,” said Amy Rose, senior media relations specialist for Methodist Hospital System.
The center says blood donations are tested for the COVID-19 antibody, and donors who test positive will be invited to return and give convalescent plasma.
“Convalescent plasma has the antibodies to help someone who is struggling for their life with the coronavirus,” Rose said.
Donors who have tested positive are encouraged to wait 14 days until after they’ve had no symptoms and bring a test result showing when they were positive.
“They can infuse the plasma into a patient in hopes their body will take the antibodies and will create their own to fight the infection,” Palmer said.