Lack of donations leave area with blood supply shortage

Natalie McIntyre, blood services coordinator for the Mid-Michigan chapter of the Red Cross’s Great Lakes Region, said that the chapter has been experiencing a decline in donations this summer.

She said that not having as many MSU and Lansing Community College students around has played a large part in that decline.

“They are a high percentage of our donors, the college kids. I think you will hear that anywhere, they supply the most amount of blood,” McIntyre said. She said that the chapter area, which consists of Clinton, Eaton, Gratiot, Ingham and Shiawassee counties, was expecting an increase in donations with the arrival of more students later this summer.

There will be two blood drives in East Lansing when classes start on the Aug. 25, one in the Union’s Lake Huron Room from 10 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., and one at Martin Luther King Chapel, 444 Abbot Road, from 12:30 to 6:15 p.m..

Katie Welch, president of the MSU’s American Red Cross Club, said that summer diminishes schools’ roles as promoters and organizers of blood drives.

“It’s harder to get the word out because a lot of the blood drives happen at schools,” Welch said. “Not just Michigan State, but other schools too, and when there is no one around it is harder to get the word out.”

Ann Kammerer, a spokeswoman with the Great Lakes Blood Services Region of the American Red Cross, said that the regions’ current blood levels are at two days worth, which is far below adequate levels of three to five days.

She said that the low levels could be deadly for the 70 hospitals in the regions’ 65 counties, who require about 700 pints of blood a day.

“We can call them critically low levels,” Kammerer said. “What that means, is if there were to be high demand, say by a serious accident, or if there was a situation where a lot of blood was needed, peoples lives could be at risk. Blood isn’t something that you can make or manufacture, or even something you can store for a long period of time.”

Kammerer said that summer activities like vacations distract people from donating blood as frequently as they normally would.

“We have regular blood donors who will give on a regular cycle, and when they are vacationing in the summer we see a drop in donations,” Kammerer said. “People who get busy with summer activities may not put giving blood in their routine.”

Jack Darr, a kinesiology senior, said that he has donated blood several times before, but not this summer.

“I haven’t really had time to go in with class and work, and trying to finish up this senior year,” Darr said.

Published on Thursday, August 7, 2008