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Need for blood donations surges with return of elective procedures

4 min read
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Blood, as it may be recalled from science class, has a limited shelf life.

Red cells can last up to 42 days when stored property. For platelets, blood products that help prevent uncontrolled bleeding, the span is only five days.

And so the supply available for medical procedures must remain steady, a situation that has been complicated by COVID-19.

“We had a number of people who wanted to donate right at the beginning of the shutdown,” said Kristen Lane, marketing lead for blood supplier Vitalant. “What happened was that we had to limit our appointments, because we did not want to have too much blood. We never, ever want to run the risk of having to waste blood.”

Because hospitals temporarily canceled elective surgeries, demand sagged. Now Vitalant, formerly known regionally as Central Blood Bank, faces the fallout as those types of procedures return to the schedule.

“It was like the faucet got turned on,” Lane said. “The need for blood just skyrocketed.”

Meanwhile, shelter-at-home orders have forced the cancellation of blood drives scheduled with various schools, places of worship, businesses and community organizations as hosts. As a result, about 9,000 donations that Vitalant had been counting on never were made.

“We strive to maintain a four-day supply of blood just to provide what patients need, and currently we’re at less than half that for certain blood types,” said Dr. Ralph Vassallo, chief medical officer at Vitalant. “It’s absolutely vital, a matter of life or death for some, to have enough blood collected and readily available on hospital shelves when patients need it.”

Vitalant is the blood supplier to Allegheny Health Network and UPMC facilities, among other hospitals, and must collect 600 blood donations every day to meet patients’ transfusion needs, according to information provided by Lane.

Donations can be made at the organizations 10 Western Pennsylvania locations, including those in Green Tree and Whitehall, and blood drives conducted by Vitalant staff members are scheduled regularly around the region.

“We’re practicing all of the safe social-distancing measures as well as sanitation procedures,” Lane said. “From a social-distancing standpoint, we have a maximum of 25 people in the donation room at any one time, and that includes staff. We make sure we have a safe social distance of at least six feet between donors.

“We sanitize all the donor chairs and all the high-touch areas between each donor frequently throughout the day,” she continued. “We ask all of our donors to wear masks, and the donor care staff also wears the masks, and gloves.”

Those who wish to donate are encouraged to make appointments.

“We don’t want to make people wait because we already have our maximum number of people in the area, and we want to make it a convenient and positive experience,” Lane said.

Appointments can be made by downloading the Vitalant Pittsburgh Mobile App for smartphone or by calling 412-209-7000. Donors also can schedule appointments online by visiting vitalant.org, selecting the “make an appointment” button and searching for the group codes for specific drives, including:

  • South Strabane Township – 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 2 and July 2 in Suite 803 at Tanger Outlets, 2200 Tanger Blvd. Group code is K0120043.
  • South Fayette Township – noon to 6 p.m. June 10 at the Hampton Inn, 150 Old Pond Road. Group code is C5300098.
  • Canton Township – 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 13 in the activity center at Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church, 605 Hewitt Ave. Group code is G0070007.
  • Waynesburg – 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. June 20 at First United Methodist Church, 112 N. Richhill St. Group code is G0110165, or contact Connie Hart at cmhart@windstream.net or 724-852-1252.

“We do need this ongoing supply,” Lane said. “There always needs to be blood available at the hospital in case of the unexpected.”

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