(Image from bloodworksnw.org)
Packed hospitals are on the brink as the local blood supply reaches a level considered “critical”, with the plea for help coming after a violent weekend that follows a recent spate of shootings.
Summertime is always hard on Bloodworks Northwest, says Doctor Kirsten Alcorn, because people are traveling and not donating, and they’re engaging in more high-risk activities [like] “sports and motorcycle riding and the whole nine yards, so we see a little bit of an uptick in demand at the same time we’re seeing a drop-off in donations.”
Add to that hospitals, like Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, which is over capacity at 130%. Alcorn says a doctor at the Harborview trauma center told her with all the recent shootings, “victims taken as a whole or as a group over the weekend,” Alcorn says, “if they had come all at once from one event would be considered a mass casualty event.”
So with the supply hanging at about just one day’s worth, the Bloodworks team is urging you to make an appointment to donate. All types are needed, but they especially need type O because of its universal properties. They want you to make an appointment rather than a walk-in donation so they can manage the flow, both to get people through faster and to minimize exposure to COVID. They’ll all be masked and, since it’s a “health care setting”, state law still requires you to mask up to donate.
Northwest Newsradio’s Ryan Harris spoke with Dr. Alcorn about what’s behind the shortages and how you can help with your donation. You can see that entire interview in the video below:
