The surge in blood donations following last month’s attacks in New York and Washington is going to beef up local supplies, as East Coast facilities report they have all they need.
UCI Medical Center in Orange has seen more people donate at its internal blood center, said Marie Pezzlo, the hospital’s assistant director of pathology. Since the attack, UCI Medical Center has derived approximately 50% of its blood needs from internal collection, as opposed to 30% previously, Pezzlo said.
In terms of numbers, UCI Medical Center was collecting approximately 50 units of blood a day right after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, up from its typical 15 to 20 units per day, Pezzlo said. Today, however, she said the center is collecting around 35 units a day.
UCI Medical Center was poised to send some of its increased blood collections to New York, Pezzlo said. But on Sept. 13, hospital officials received word that “there were few survivors and the New York blood bank didn’t need it,” she said.
Donations from Orange County Blood Services were part of a 380-pint shipment sent from North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego to New York on the day of the attacks, said Lynn Stedd, spokeswoman for the San Diego Blood Bank. Orange County Blood Services, in Orange, is a satellite of the San Diego Blood Bank.
Getting the blood to a C-9 military airplane for shipment involved some degree of drama, according to Stedd. The 15 cases of blood, packed in ice to ensure a constant temperature, required a police escort to North Island and the blood bank’s driver had to fight traffic snarls.
Orange County Blood Services also saw a surge in donations after the attack. According to Stedd, the organization received 42 whole blood units and 41 aphoresis, or blood component, units on Sept. 11, a record.
“Typically, we do 300 to 400 pints a day (in both counties). By the 13th, we’d collected over 3,000 pints,” Stedd said.
While several OC hospitals, like UCI Medical Center, have their own internal blood donation programs, they still depend on the American Red Cross for much of their blood supplies.
“What happened, when the terrorist attack occurred, was that we were not able to ship any blood in,” said Julie Juliusson, spokeswoman for American Red Cross Blood Services. “(Normally), we import 50% of the blood that we need. We do not collect enough blood here in Southern California to meet our needs.”
That changed, however, on Sept. 11. Juliusson said the Red Cross’ local offices were inundated with potential donors following the attacks.
“The upside to the whole tragedy is that we are able to meet our own blood needs (locally),” she said.
On a normal day, the Red Cross Blood Services’ Southern California region collects 1,000 to 1,200 units of blood, according to Juliusson. The tragedy, however, has caused collections to jump up to around 2,000 units a day, she said.
American Red Cross Blood Service’s Southern California region includes Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties. The organization, which is based in Los Angeles, provided about 600,000 units of blood products to 150 hospitals in the three counties last year. On July 1, the organization raised its prices for blood and blood products by 28.6%, citing increased costs. n
