Blood donations are down, but ‘there’s always a continual need’
One week after the diagnosis, 13year-old Nichole Hogan lost her life to leukemia, a cancer of bloodforming tissues. While Nichole, who died on Jan. 7, 2022, couldn’t have been saved by blood donations, her family hopes others with diseases like hers can be.
That’s why Nichole’s family holds an annual blood drive with the American Red Cross in her honor. At this year’s event — held June 15 at the Richard L. Ferguson American Legion Post 527 in East Pittsburgh — Allegheny County council member Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis officially declared the date Nichole Denise Hogan Day in Allegheny County.
“We don’t know if getting tested sooner might have made a difference or not, but maybe it’ll make a difference for someone else,” said Nichole’s grandmother, Kathleen Haynes, 53, of Braddock Hills. “This event means so much. Words can’t even express what it means to me.”
Last month, the American Red Cross experienced a “concerning shortfall in blood and platelet donations” nationwide, receiving more than 26,000 fewer donations “than needed to meet patients’ needs,” per Nicole Roschella, regional communications manager for the American Red Cross Greater Pennsylvania Region.
According to Red Cross data, the Red Cross nationally received 359,715 donations in May, the fewest donations in any month this year.
And it’s not as if blood can be hoarded: Red blood cells have a shelf life of just 42 days, and platelets must be used within five days of donation.
Roschella noted that the Red Cross considered this a shortfall of donations; the term shortage is reserved for “a super dire situation,” such as doctors rescheduling surgeries due to a lack of blood supply.
While “we’re not necessarily in a blood shortage now, there’s always a continual need for blood,” said Jorge Martinez, CEO of the American Red Cross of Greater Pennsylvania, who donated at the drive honoring Nichole Hogan.
“So obviously, the awareness piece and getting the word out that this is critically important is one of those ways that we combat that,” Martinez said.
At the blood drive in Nichole Hogan’s honor, a total of 30 units were donated, Roschella said.
Shortfalls are part of the normal
blood donation cycle, especially when summer begins. Summer means vacations and traveling for many, and donating blood often falls off people’s radars, Roschella said.
To attract more donors, Red Cross officials try to get creative.
In April, they partnered with PEANUTS and offered a free Red Cross and Peanuts Snoopy T-shirt to anyone who donated. They were over whelmed by the positive response, Roschella said. Throughout June, the Red Cross is giving all donors nationwide a $10 gift card to a merchant of their choice, along with a chance to win a backyard theater package.
Every two seconds in the U.S., someone needs a blood transfusion, Roschella said, with needs ranging from accidents to planned surgeries.
“Many people who end up in the hospital might not have expected to need a blood transfusion and they end up needing that life-saving blood,” she said.
In January 2022, the Red Cross declared its first-ever national blood crisis after experiencing a 10% decline in donations from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent changes in FDA eligibility guidelines could help.
In October, the FDA lifted a ban dating back to 1999 prohibiting blood donations from anyone in the U.S. who lived in the U.K., France or Ireland or served in the military in some parts of Europe from 1980 to 2001 because of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), also known as “mad cow disease.”
Last month, the FDA also updated year Allegheny eligibility requirements for gay and bisexual 2019’ 152 men, who, in most cases, can now 2020’ donate 177 blood if they’re in a monogamous relationship 2021’ 251 without having to refrain 2022’ from 288 sex for three months prior.
2023’ 306
The Red Cross “is planning to implement the FDA’s final guidance on August 7,” per the Red Cross website, with hopes to make blood donation a more inclusive experience for LGBTQ+ donors.
Beverly Hritz, 70, of Greensburg said she donated blood into her mid-40s, but had to stop since she lived in England during the early 1990s. The last time she donated was in 1998.
In December, when she learned the ban had been lifted, she made an appointment to donate blood for the first time in 24 years. She is again a regular donor, driven to do so because she saw firsthand how blood donations aided a family member with leukemia, who “required several units of blood to help stabilize his condition.”
“The blood donations helped get him through the initial crisis,” Hritz said in an email. “Donating blood is the easiest way to help save lives.”
Hritz recently donated blood to the Red Cross in Greensburg, where she did a Power Red donation, which allows for two units of blood to be taken — using a machine that returns plasma and platelets to the donor.
Also spurred by a family member, Annemarie Torrez, 62, of Cranberry Township, began donating when her mother was diagnosed with a form of pre-leukemia and needed blood transfers. While her mother no longer needs transfusions, Torrez continues to donate.
“It’s so rewarding to be able to give something that I have to somebody whose life depends on it,” Torrez said.
She is also a Red Cross volunteer who hopes to help out at the national level after more training.
“There’s such a variety of things you can do for the American Red Cross,” she said. “But you know, giving blood is one that just needs to be done and if you can do it, why wouldn’t you?”
Nichole’s grandmother, Nicole Glaze, 53, of Braddock Hills, said both she and her grand daughter Nichole have needed blood transfusions in the past, so she thinks giving blood is “a very important thing to do.”
“You’re giving life to people who need it,” she said. “People are sick. You know, this is the best thing.”
How to donate
Donors can give every 56 days, plasma can be donated no more than twice in a seven-day period and platelets can be donated once every seven days up to 24 times
a year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Blood donors must be in good health, weigh a minimum of 110 pounds, and must not have had a tattoo or piercing in the last four months. In most states, including Pennsylvania, donors must be at least 16 years old.