BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Roll up your sleeves. Hoxworth Blood Center needs your blood.
High demand from local patients, coupled with low donation rates throughout the Midwest, prompted the blood bank Tuesday to issue its second emergency appeal for donors in six months.
"We are below our minimum levels, especially for type O blood," Hoxworth spokeswoman Marsha Terry said. "If there was a sudden emergency need for blood, we'd be in trouble."
For the next six days, Hoxworth's seven neighborhood donor centers will be open extended hours.
Previous emergency appeals were declared in January, December 1996, October 1996 and October 1995.
Hoxworth announces emergency appeals whenever the supply dips more than 350 units below projected need. As of Tuesday, the blood bank was 389 units short.
Blood donations frequently dip during holidays and summertime, but this shortage struck earlier than expected, Ms. Terry said. The latest shortage has occurred in part because efforts to increase donations from corporate blood drives have fallen short of goals, and because Hoxworth has not been able to buy blood from other cities.
Dayton and Indianapolis recently declared shortages. Hoxworth called 50 other blood banks Tuesday and couldn't buy a single pint. Then, with supplies low, a spike in demand aggravated the issue. A run of trauma cases, liver transplants, bone marrow transplants and other high-demand surgeries have drained supplies.
Before declaring the emergency, Hoxworth tried several other steps.
First, Hoxworth tried to buy supplies from blood banks in other cities. Then it urged hospitals to schedule patients with similar blood types for surgery at the same time. And it routed blood from community hospitals to the city's two big trauma centers, University and Good Samaritan hospitals.
Hoxworth needs 300 units a day, every day, to meet demand. For information on how to donate, blood, call Hoxworth at 451-0910.
