this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2024
205 points (98.6% liked)

News

23371 readers
2966 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

The American Red Cross has declared an emergency blood shortage, saying patients are at risk of not getting lifesaving transfusions.

...

Donors are needed now more than ever as the Red Cross faces a national emergency shortage, with the number of donors at a 20-year low. Medical director Dr. Eric Gehrie says the Red Cross has experienced a loss of 300,000 donors since the COVID-19 pandemic alone.

"It means that hospitals will order a certain number of units of blood, and those orders are not being filled fully," he said. "So hospital blood banks are low on blood."

Gehrie says the Red Cross supplies about 40% of the nation's blood supply. He says emptier shelves could force hospitals to make excruciating decisions about which patients are prioritized for blood.

"Doctors have to make choices about which patients can receive a transfusion in a given day," he says. "Surgeries like heart can be delayed waiting for the available blood to be collected and sent to the hospital."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] partial_accumen 33 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Both the USA and Canada have made blood donation require more effort.

Pre-pandemic you could simply walk into one of the many convenient blood donation center and walk out inside an hour having done all the test/paperwork and whole blood donation. Not only have they closed many donation locations, but also require you to schedule a donation.

Further, some are getting more picky about what donations they accept. Canadian Blood Services stopped accepting American blood donors in 2020 (temporarily?). They've since closed the donation location (but are in the process of building a new one). Finally, they aren't doing whole blood donations anymore and only taking plasma which requires apheresis blood donation. This mean instead of 25 min or so bleeding, from one arm, its 1.5 to 2 hours of having two tubes hooked up, one to each arm, and them shoving your non-plasma blood back into you.

American Red Cross is requiring scheduled times the last time I checked. I was turned away at the door because of scheduling requirements on two different occasions and don't think I'll try for a third.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There was a report in ... I dunno, the early 2000's, that the Australian Red Cross was running extremely low on blood. But when some paper (maybe the Sydney Morning Herald?) investigated, they found that the blood supply itself was fine; what was running low were the igg or igf factors they were removing from the blood and selling to corporations for massive profits. :/

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm in central Ohio. The regular place I used to go to donate regularly cancels my appointments due to staffing issues. I've taken to going to pop-up areas because those don't cancel appointments. They only do whole blood and power red.

Yes, my understanding is that you have to schedule an appointment, although you can usually schedule for the next day.

[–] Serinus 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Pop-ups doing whole blood, got it. As they get more desperate, I expect we'll see more of these. And central Ohio has a lot of hospitals.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I find they tend to be at churches, libraries, or hospitals.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They just changed the rules recently and made me eligible to donate for the first time in my life. It's been more complicated than I had anticipated to actually donate! I gather it wasn't always like this? I just want to walk into a hospital or something and take a half hour nap while they suck me dry.

[–] afraid_of_zombies 5 points 10 months ago

It was much easier pre-covid.

[–] afraid_of_zombies 4 points 10 months ago

I did triple platelets once and it was miserable