Friday, January 23, 1998
Blood center pleas for donors
SHORTAGE: Supply
40 percent of normal
during bad flu season
By Kathryn Combs
Daily Bruin Staff
Due to a seasonal decline in donations and the onset of the
worst cold and flu epidemic ever, the United States is facing a
nationwide blood shortage.
And because the shortage experienced by Southern California
residents is more severe, the UCLA Blood Donor Center is feeling
the effects and has recently issued an appeal for donations.
"The blood needs at UCLA are continuous and ongoing," said Kevin
Clark, a coordinator and analyst for Blood Donor Resources. "What
we need to do is look at UCLA as a community."
"Seventy percent of the population at UCLA is eligible to
donate," Clark said, estimating that this amounts to about 55,000
people at UCLA alone.
From Thanksgiving to mid-January, donation numbers drop
dramatically because people are busy preparing for the holidays,
Clark said.
This year the problem was exacerbated by the fact that
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years all fell on Thursday, leaving
only two weekdays during which people could donate.
"We got dealt a bunch of deuces," Clark said. During the
holidays, "if you are an UCLA employee, you are winding up your
projects and if you are a student you have projects you are working
on," he said.
So blood supply went down at a crucial time. "The demand for
blood or blood parts goes up between Thanksgiving and mid-January,"
Clark said, because of a rise in the number of medical procedures
performed during this time.
Once UCLA realized they had a shortage, they called all over the
United States looking for suppliers, said Ann Shadler, senior
clinical lab technologist specialist for the Division of
Transfusion Medicine.
"We were at the point where we were going to have to cancel
elective surgeries, (and) we were lucky we didn’t have a big trauma
come in," Shadler said.
According to Shadler, as a trauma center, UCLA needs to have
enough blood to accommodate emergency procedures.
Any one accident can consume up to 50 pints of blood, and
approximately 500 pints of blood are kept at the UCLA Blood Bank
for general community use. The community blood bank is for patients
who do not have blood reserved in their name, such as victims of
trauma.
However, the amount of blood available fluctuates relative to
the number of patients at UCLA.
"One of the things that got us through the shortage was is that
we have our own donor center," Shadler said.
"Last week we doubled our usual draw. We usually draw about
35-40 regular donors per day (and) last week we drew approximately
70 a day," she said.
"I can’t drag people in from outside UCLA because it would be
too difficult," Clark said. "And we should be able to draw from
UCLA."
The recent university-wide appeal for donors has managed to
increase supplies, but not to ideal or necessary levels, said donor
center officials.
"Our biggest problem is a shortage of O positive and O
negative," said Ann Marie Lebseck, senior supervisor of the
transfusion service. O type blood is the universal blood type,
compatible with all other blood types.
Blood supplies at UCLA are counted and rechecked three times a
day, so doctors and staff are constantly aware of low supply
levels.
"Now we are at about 40 percent of our supply," Lebseck said.
"(And) the bad news is that we have two other outside blood
suppliers, the Red Cross and United Blood Services, and neither of
these could serve us this morning.
"In fact, they’ve supplied maybe an eighth of what we asked
for," she contended.
Approximately half of UCLA’s blood supply is purchased from
outside suppliers, while the rest is provided by the on-campus
Blood Donor Center.
"The thing to remember is that we are constantly bombarded with
emergency traumas," she said. "We’ve even come close to canceling
surgeries."
"We really need the continued support of the UCLA community,"
Lebseck said. "This is what keeps the medical center going and able
to provide the services we can."
For more information, call the UCLA Blood Donor Center at (310)
825-0888, extension 2.