Waiting until another tragedy like the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to donate blood could cause a severe shortage in blood supply around the country.
Jim Rummel, a spokesman for the Great Lakes region of the American Red Cross, said California, Arizona, New York and Chicago all experienced shortages in the last few weeks, but not Michigan - yet.
“We personally aren’t having a problem yet in the Great Lakes region,” Rummel said. “We’re shipping blood to California and Chicago, but there’s always a blood shortage somewhere.”
The Red Cross supplies blood collected from drives in Lansing, Petoskey and Muskegon to 70 hospitals throughout the Upper and Lower peninsulas.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, Rummel said blood donations reached a 10-day supply, then declined to a seven-day supply and have leveled off for the past few weeks at a five- to seven-day supply.
Aside from fluctuations surrounding the tragedy, Rummel said there’s usually a blood shortage this time of year because of the holidays.
Many surgeries are delayed until after the holidays, which creates a blood shortage when surgeries begin again around the first of the year.
“A lot of people only donate blood after a tragedy like Sept. 11,” he said. “The other people are either avid donors, who donate every 56 days, or lukewarm donors, who donate every once in a while.”
Some students at MSU fall into the lukewarm category for various reasons.
“I couldn’t donate after September 11 because I have a low iron count,” elementary education junior Jason Connolly said. “I always try, and I always get the sticker that says ‘I tried.’”
Kinesiology senior Sadie Lovall donated blood last year, but didn’t after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“Last year when I donated, I felt really bad after because I hardly had enough iron,” she said. “I’m not waiting for another tragedy to happen, but if there was a shortage or I knew someone who needed blood, I would donate again.”
Many students helped keep the blood supply up before the holidays during the annual MSU-Penn State Blood Challenge in November.
At Lamda Chi’s blood drive during the two-week contest, the fraternity processed 118 donors.
“We had a goal of 150, but due to low staffing, we could only process 118,” said David Bosman, the fraternity’s chairman for the event.
The political theory and constitutional democracy and social relations junior said the shortage around the country could be caused by people not knowing how long they have to wait between donations.
“A lot of people went out and gave blood after Sept. 11,” he said. “People don’t know there’s only a 56-day waiting period in between donations and don’t know when to donate again.”
