Severe blood crunch looms
Shortage could hamper response to tragedies like the condo collapse
When the 2 a.m. call came in about a collapsed tower in Surfside, OneBlood immediately rushed bags of blood to nearby hospitals and on-site rescue workers.
The reserves, set aside for mass casualty incidents, prove critical in the hours following an emergency.
“We must have blood available,” said Susan Forbes, OneBlood’s senior vice president of corporate communications. “In a trauma situation, you can’t wait a day or two later. You need it immediately.”
But in South Florida, just as in other parts of the nation, reserves have dwindled during the pandemic and hit a critical point, where local hospitals report a desperate need for blood.
Forbes said a perfect storm of events transpired: Over the past
few months, hospitals have seen a rise in trauma cases, organ transplants and elective surgeries. Collections at colleges, high schools, workplaces, movie theaters and other venues dropped during the pandemic and haven’t recovered.
Summer, typically a slow season for donations, looks dire this year as well as travel distracts donors from giving blood.
In parts of the U.S., the lack of blood is so great that some hospitals are slowing the pace of elective surgeries and delaying some patient care until blood-supply levels rebound. Some physicians are reserving blood for the most critical patients
“The is one of our most challenging times,” Forbes said.
South Florida blood banks say they are meeting demand from hospitals, yet that soon could change.
“There are certain days when we are worried about whether we can support our patients,” said Dr. Yanyun Wu, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Miami and blood bank director at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
In South Florida, across hospitals with trauma centers, blood demand has risen more than 10%.
“We have definitely had moments where the blood bank is not able to send blood and we have had to get blood from other nearby
hospitals,” Wu said. “We work together to reshuffle to get the blood we need knowing it’s a limited supply.”
If the shortage persists throughout the summer, elective surgeries may have to be canceled and blood transfusions for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy may need to be rescheduled.
At Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Roberto Ortiz, the hospital’s blood bank supervisor, sees a scarcity of Type O blood as he carefully manages the inventory at the hospital.
Ortiz said orders from the blood bank arrive partially filled and physicians now must consider inventory when scheduling surgeries, delaying procedures if needed.
“This week is fine because we don’t have many open-heart surgeries, but when we do they can use a lot of units of blood and that can deplete our inventory really quick,” Ortiz said. “We are a small hospital, so we have to manage very carefully.”
Ortiz said Holy Cross doesn’t do trauma or transplants like big public hospitals, but it does do a lot of heart surgeries and dialysis, which require having blood on hand.
“The only source of blood is the generosity of donors,” he said. “With blood, there are no alternatives or other options.”