The American Red Cross National Blood Emergency

It's Sophia with an F, Franklin with the Y, and if you're looking for some bubble gum dumb, dumb podcast, then you are in the wrong place, baby. Whether I'm reminiscing on the trials and tribulations of working in the corporate world to recapping today's latest reality TV show, you're going to want to pull up a chair and stick around. It's a good time and always 100% unfiltered. Follow and listen to Sophia with an F wherever you get your podcast. The American Red Cross says it's facing a critical shortage of donated blood. It has declared a blood supply crisis for only the second time in its history. The Red Cross says it has less than a one-day supply of type O positive blood, which is most commonly used in transfusions. I'm WBBM News Radio's Rob Hart, and this week on At Issue, we talk about the contributing factors behind the blood shortage and what you can do to help this week on At Issue. Connie Asparza, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross and blood donor services, Emily Alonis of the American Red Cross. Thank you for joining us today on At Issue. Now, the Red Cross has declared a national blood emergency. That's because of a 25% drop in blood supply since June. Emily, what is the Red Cross definition of a blood emergency? So we are constantly looking at how much blood we have left on the shelves. And so we are at less than a two-day supply of many of our products and down to a one-day supply of our type O. So that is when we have already distributed out to the hospitals, but that's what's left on our shelves. So if a major emergency, things like that happened, we would deplete our shelves within one day. And then have you encountered this situation before? It's been four years since we've seen levels this low. We do tend to see a dip in the summer, but never to this extreme level in a while. And then, Connie, what has been going on, though, driving this need for donor blood that is resulting in, you know, what they call tank bottom in the petroleum industry? You know, there's a variety of different circumstances that is impacting this crisis that we've escalated to. You know, we see dips in the winter. We see dips in the summer. But we're also dealing with, you know, air quality issues and people not wanting to leave home. There's been illness as well. And let's face it, the severe storms have also been impacting communities. And we've had to cancel blood drives because of severe storms. We've seen people not show up for their appointments because they're busy cleaning up after. after tornadoes have ripped through their community. Now, we had this conversation back in May just about how summer is a especially stressful time for the donor blood supply. It seems like, unfortunately, a lot of those predictions came true. And as you talk about some of the unique factors in terms of why the supply of donor blood reaches critically low levels, That's on top of the existing summer lull. And explain some of the factors that lead to that summer lull.

Well, it's springtime, right? We saw unusual storm activity even as early as March. So right there. And if we trace back, the shortage started really what, the end of May, April into May. And we were coming off of serious storms even back then. And illness. We were dealing with a different type of illness at that point. So it's just, it's been a snowball effect, to be honest, and something that we've been trying to get ahead for several months now. And just in the past few weeks, we've seen everything just escalate to a level that we haven't seen here at the Red Cross. We've only called a crisis. This is the second time in our history that we've called it, where we've seen, as Emily just stated, we've seen the inventory depleted to the point that it is. Now, Emily. illustrate the journey of donor blood from the blood drive itself to where, you know, the area of greatest need, kind of walk us along that journey. I'm so happy you ask that because a lot of people, right, you're in a hospital, you see the need for blood there, but they don't realize the blood that's going to help someone is the blood that was donated two days prior. And so once we collect a unit of blood at a blood drive in your local community, we take it back to our lab and we run over 13 tests on every bag of blood to make sure it's safe for donors to receive. So that is where we get about a 24-hour time frame to get all of those tests back in, make sure it's safe to release that blood, and then transporting the blood to our local hospitals. And so what we find is that people... Forget that you can't wait till you know someone. It's the blood donated two days prior that is really going to make that difference for a patient in need. And very rarely in our inventory, do we have much more than a weak supply of blood? We do know blood has a shelf life of 42 days, and so we can't keep it forever, but we do tend to only have about a week in the time frame like summer. So being down to two days is dramatically lower than what we would normally have. And then when hospitals need donor blood, where does the Red Cross enter that conversation? We have set agreements with all hospitals throughout Chicago land and throughout the country that they each have a primary and generally a secondary supplier. So they'll work with a blood center like the American Red Cross and there are other blood centers throughout the area that they will work to make sure they have the blood they need contracted in advance. So they can plan for about 90% of their usage based on what they do every month. But then we have what's called stat orders where there's a trauma, there's a major accident, there is a birthing complication, there is a transplant that comes in, and they will order blood that then is needed within two hours of the time they call in. So we are constantly finding a balance between that contracted blood that we can plan and forecast in advance. and then those traumatic units and stat orders that need to go faster than that. And then, Emily, when we talk about this shortage of blood, let's discuss the real-world impact, what this means for hospitals in those stat situations where they need donor blood as quickly as possible. What happens if that donor blood is not available?

So we always try and cover those stat orders first. And so if someone is in a life or death situation, our blood bank teams out at the hospitals will pull those units. But what that means is they're pulling the units from someone else. So your cancer patients, your people who's... Blood levels have just dropped, and so their energy, their ability to go home from the hospital, that's impacted when they can't receive those blood. So I saw firsthand in 2021, my dad was a liver transplant recipient, but leading up to that, his levels had dropped, so his energy to get out of bed, to be able to do daily activities without a blood transfusion, he couldn't do that. And the blood up until that point of transplant, which was keeping him going for about nine months. So what we saw back in 2021 was another time where we had some of these shortages. And so instead of transfusing him when his hemoglobin was at a 14, they waited until his hemoglobin was at a 10. And so that meant grandpa had more hospital stays. He wasn't able to come home and do things the way he would have if we had blood on the shelves. And then Connie, we talked about how this was the first blood emergency, national blood emergency since 2022. Looking back on that particular instance, nearly five years ago, what were some of the contributing factors back then? Oh, I, you know, we can assume it's been a few years, but it was basically the same thing because it was around the same time, if I'm not mistaken. And we were dealing with a lot of, you know, people traveling. We saw a lift in the travel ban, so people were trying to get out and do things. It was just a different era where as today, you know, like I mentioned, you're adding to all of that, the summer vacations, the activities, the just forgetfulness, too. People forget that they made an appointment. They didn't realize that, God, we have a conflict, so I can't make the appointment. This year has just been, you know. added layers to all of that. Like I mentioned, the air quality, people were afraid to leave their home, especially if they were dealing with other respiratory issues, they didn't want to risk it. We were dealing with other illnesses too and people were having to recover from that. You know, but time and again, weather has a big, big play into whether or not people show up to their appointments, whether it's the winter, it's the summer. And in the summer, as we've seen, we've seen, we no longer have a tornado season. Now it feels like it's tornadoes any time for any reason. Just like hurricanes, that time period has extended. So now it's really hard to predict when I'm having to deal with something out of the ordinary. that will also then have a domino effect with us. And let's talk about the severe weather that has been roiling the Midwest for the last couple of months now. And even though this interview is about blood donation, let's zoom out and just look at the overall mission of the Red Cross. This week, of course, starts with this heartbreaking tornado that took place.

in the Fox Valley of Wisconsin, the destruction that we're starting to see with the light of day there. And that is where Red Cross volunteers spring into action. They're often first or second on the scene. When there is a tornado or straight line winds or some type of storm damage in the Midwest, Chicago, Wisconsin, that would force someone out of their home. Right. And Rob, let's not, you know, the reality of it is that storms do also impact blood donation directly. Just yesterday with the tornadoes that hit our area, there were blood drives that had to be canceled because there was power outages because they were tornado sirens going off. So people had to find safety. So all those things do impact. But you're right. It's the generosity of our volunteers. that donate their time to be at a blood drive to welcome the blood donors that show up in the communities. You know, I was just at a shelter this morning that we opened up in Steger for residents in that area that were impacted. And, you know, whether it's 2 a.m. or 11 a.m., you're going to walk into that shelter. You're going to be greeted by our volunteers who are there to make sure that people's immediate needs are taken care of. that, you know, there's a recovery plan for them. And that shelter will stay there until everybody in that shelter has a plan for what their housing is going to look like moving forward. And we're talking people who lost, you know, their homes because the storms collapsed their buildings, took the roofs off, or there's a tree sitting in the middle of their of their kitchen this morning. And you find that our volunteers show up with compassion, with care. And it doesn't matter what time of day and what day of the week and whether it's a holiday or not. Life can feel overwhelming. But on my podcast, From the Heart with Rachel Brathen, we're in it together. Every Friday, a new episode brings you a new story with topics on motherhood, wellness, self-love, and more. Listen to From the Heart with Rachel Brathen wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to Add Issue on WBBM News Radio. I'm Rob Hart. We are talking about the American Red Cross National Blood Emergency with spokeswoman Connie Esparsa and Emily Alanese, who is with blood donor services with the American Red Cross. Emily, let's talk about the humble blood drive, many of which have been canceled as a result of the severe weather that rolled through the Chicago area this week. One blood drive at a high school or a church or at some organization in your local community. What kind of an impact does that have? And let's really visualize that impact because we can throw out lots of numbers at people. But if you can really talk about one pint of blood will do this for some person you don't know, that could inspire someone to make that appointment. Yes. So you're spot on. My biggest ask is each person can come out in each. bag of blood we can potentially save three different people with as we break it down into three products of plasma platelets and red cells to help people for different medical needs.

With that, we then have our blood drives. And our average blood drive collects about 25 units, and so we can help 75 people through one blood drive. Every given day, just in Chicago land, we are having roughly 13 blood drives go on to bring in those units to help every day. When we look at that across the country, days like yesterday where we had three different blood drives cancel due to power outages and sirens, it makes an impact of... over 200 units being impacted in one afternoon because of power outages. So that's kind of the biggest impact. But what I love for a humble blood drive, if you will, is we need to connect with more people. The reality when we look big picture is only 3% of the population is donating blood right now. So outside of us calling this crisis, to me, that's a community crisis. We have 3% donating for the rest of us. And if we can get three more donors at each blood drive coming in for the first time, we'll make a major difference. Since COVID, we've estimated that over 60% of the population is now eligible to donate because of great FDA changes from things like tattoos and piercings to travel restrictions. But yet, our numbers continued to go down each year. So when I started in this industry 15 years ago, we said 5% of the population donated. And year by year, it's trickled down who we see coming through the door. And thankfully, we've made medical advances where we've been okay and we've kept a stable supply, but it's made us all that much more vulnerable like we are today that a couple bad weeks in a row of air quality, weather, and disaster can really set us apart. Now, you mentioned that 3% of the population... you would consider frequent flyers when it comes to blood donation that is down from 5% a little over a decade ago. And what can be done to turn someone who may be an occasional donor and infrequent donor? They do it as part of a school project or a community blood drive. Turn them into a regular donor. Coming in once a year. So to be a part of that 3%, all you have to do is come in once a year. We do have people who get busy. I have kids. I understand the pressures. But once a year, if more donors could find a time to come to a blood drive, I would especially ask for it in the summer or the winter. But that makes a huge help for us to come through and donate just once a year. Could make a difference. And then Connie, when it comes to like the infrastructure of blood drives, what kind of resources are needed on the Red Cross side to make sure these blood drives in the community are organized and effective? We have a wonderful team that manage our mobile blood drives. And as long as you have a big enough space and that could be a community center, it could be a church, could be a school that is not in session right now. And that's the other thing that we're seeing, you know, you ask me about what's impacting. It's we don't have school, right? There's school isn't in session. And many times our schools are wonderful blood drive hosts. So.

Because the schools are empty, possibly the use of their lunchrooms or their gymnasiums. And we, like I said, we have a team who will come out, make sure that the space meets the requirements because there are requirements as far as size and as far as temperature control goes. But. It's, we find that we have the opportunity to go into some really fun spaces, really into the heart of communities that are hoping to inspire those new blood donors to come in at least once a year, as Emily was saying. And we urge, and we know that everybody is a blood donor. But you know what, you can also be a blood drive host. And it takes just a connection. Connect us to that school, connect us to that community center, that town hall, introduce us to someone. Or you yourself consider hosting maybe in memory of somebody in honor of somebody in your family who either used blood products or fought a really tough battle and use blood products. And this is a way to honor them. Now, if Connie, if you could wave a magic wand and really. come up with a list of resources that the Red Cross needs in order to level up their blood donation capabilities. What are some ideas that come to mind? You know, there's always a way to incentivize the blood donors. And if you're a regular blood donor, you know that every month there's a new incentive, whether those are gift cards or tickets to movies or there's really cool swag sometimes. But I think the incentive here, the biggest thing that should inspire all of us is that we're making a difference for someone. You know, we talk to families who say our life, our family wouldn't be our family if it hadn't been for that blood donor who selflessly gave an hour of their time. to make sure that there was blood available for my child or my mother or my wife. You know, full trajectory, legacies of family changed because that simple gesture. And that should be an inspiration because studies show that we never think it's going to be us. And, you know, if you sit back and think of who in my circle possibly has dealt with cancer treatments or possibly had a really tough delivery when a child was born, most likely they utilize blood. And we want to make sure that, you know, in our circle, if that happens again, that it's available for them. And then, Emily, we had this discussion before, but there are probably a lot of people who are listening who say, I understand what's going on. I want to help. I'm deathly afraid of needles. I'd rather host the blood drive than participate in one. And what is your message to that person who is hesitant?

I would always say getting involved one way or another, we would greatly appreciate the support. So hosting a blood drive goes such a long way. But also, the needle, it's not as bad as I think most of us make it out to be. My family will laugh as they hear this because I was terrified of needles. And then I told them I was going to work for the Red Cross. And so it is one little pinch. And with that, you can help three different people. So I find that it's a lot of times mind over matter in that case. And we have made it a little bit better because there is no longer a finger stick that you have to do to get started. So it's truly one pinch and we can help save three lives. And then when we talk about... the factors that led to this particular national blood emergency. And we talk about the situations, severe weather, and we're not even at hurricane season yet. It's the end of July, the beginning of August, and hurricane season is just around the corner. But here in the storm-tossed Midwest, there could be a great deal of storm-related trauma, and that must be a unique... pressure point that the blood supply is facing right now. You know, Rob, as Emily mentioned, we supply 40% of the nation's blood. And we have over 2,500 different hospital partners across the country. And when one part of the country is being impacted, whether it's a wildfire on the West or it's a hurricane, you know, in Florida, absolutely, you know, that blood supply, that lifeline is going to be impacted. So we step it up and make sure that we offset, you know, the drives that were canceled on the West Coast or the hospitals that, you know, in Florida that are finding themselves, you know, stretched in with the blood supply. the entire network then rallies and make sure that we're working extra hard to offset what is not being collected in those areas. So you're right. Whether it's happening here locally or happening somewhere across the country, it does have an impact. The beauty of it is that we are a big organization that has the resources and we hope that with the stories that we share with the stats and just, you know, we're blood donors ourselves. We were a first time. We didn't know what the process was. And sometimes that's what prevents people from being that blood donor because they just don't understand what does it take? What should I expect? And the more we talk about it, the more we share, I feel we will get that person who will donate at least once a year. You're listening to At Issue on WBBM News Radio. I'm Rob Hart. We are talking about the National Blood Emergency with the American Red Cross. Connie Asparza is a spokeswoman for the Red Cross. Emily Alonis is blood donor services. And you probably know this better than I do. But when...

We put the call out for people to step up. People typically answer that call, and we are coming up on the 25th anniversary of 9-11, and one of the most distinct memories I recall of the days after the attacks in New York and Washington was just the sheer number of people who came out to donate blood because they were moved to do so. And the message at the time from the Red Cross and other organizations was, Come back. This is the need is constant. So please become a regular. And could we see that again today? You know, just like our financial stability is one emergency away from being a catastrophe, that's the same thing with blood, right? You said the need is constant. We see that every three seconds, someone in this country is in need of a blood product for recovery, for treatment, for surgery. And yeah, it's one hurricane, it's one tornado. It's that one thing that's going to have a very big impact on whether or not we can keep up. So the biggest ask here is that. Yes, we'd like to welcome that once a year, blood donor, but let's face it, we need that one timer to be a little, you know, more of a constant. You can donate every 56 days. You know, maybe you do it twice a year. Help us maintain because during that time of emergency, it's the blood on the shelves that's going to answer the need immediately. But we then, behind the seas, need to make sure that we're working really hard to replenish that supply. Now, if you're a blood donor in the Chicago area, Is it a pretty reasonable guess to assume that your donor blood is going to be used by a hospital somewhere in the Midwest? Or can it be taken around the country? You know, the beauty of it is we have a blood donor app. And if you're a blood donor, you see the journey your blood takes as soon as it's inventoried after you donate it. And most times, yes, it'll stay local, but it's also interesting to see that sometimes it ends up in different parts of the country. And there's a feeling that comes over you when you're like, oh, it's going to a children's hospital in Oregon. And it's just a, and I really encourage everybody to do it once because once you see that journey and you kind of paint a picture of it in your head of who received your blood, you're like, there's a little bit of me somewhere out there in Oregon that help the child. You know, you just, you just, you get a little bit excited about, okay, I'm going to donate today. I wonder, I wonder where it's going to end up. And we do have over five of the level one trauma centers here right in Chicago land. Every year I can.

kind of to speak numbers say we are about a 10,000 unit deficit from what we use in the state of Illinois to what we actually collect. So we are counting on other states to bring in blood for us. The neat thing about blood is that we need to genetically match it. So we are blessed to be a beautiful melting pot here in Chicago. So sometimes we will find those amazing directed donations that we need to get into children's hospitals in Oregon or Texas or on the East Coast. But more often than... We are using the blood right here in Chicago. And then as part of this national blood emergency, there is real need for O positive and B negative blood types. Now, there are some people who can rattle off their blood type at the drop of a hat. There are other people when they're asked that question. It's like, I got to go. It's in a filing cabinet somewhere in my house. How can you know your blood type so you can go into a blood drive as a truly informed donor? Good news is you don't have to know your blood types. So we need all the blood types. So everybody's welcome. The Red Cross will do the work for you. And we will, through that donor app or through a card or even just through an email, you can find out what your blood type is after that first time. So don't pay a doctor or anybody to tell you it. We will do that for you for free. And then we'll also give you information about why your blood type is special. So right now we do need that type O, which is used in emergency situations. But each of our blood types really does have special characteristics when we start to look at the type A's. We need them for platelet donation. are AB paws while really, or AB paws and negative actually, while really rare, their plasma is really special. So we'll not only tell you your blood type, we'll teach you about your blood type. And then, Connie, as we wrap things up, if you're listening to this show and you're saying to yourself, you know what, I want to roll up my sleeve and make a fist a couple of times and get the job done, how can you find a blood drive without, you know, that you may not be, you know, aware of happening in the community, but you want to donate somewhere. Red Crossblood.org is the easiest place for you to punch in your zip code and find a blood driver at Red Cross Blood Donation Center near you. If you like to talk to somebody, always available to call 1-800 Red Cross. Speak to a representative. They'll help you find and secure an appointment. The blood donor app, you can donate it, get yourself registered that way, and you can actually search and book your appointments right on the app itself. It's the easiest thing to do. We have blood drives every single day other than maybe Saturdays. Blood donation centers, hours vary. So sometimes if you're an early bird, we might have a location that is open really early or after hours after you're done with work. And then in your estimation, what can fix this blood emergency? Obviously.

talking to us is is certainly part of that solution but is this a problem that will be solved by the first day of school No, I think it's ongoing. What we need to do is work on moving that needle. You know, we talked about the 60% that is eligible to donate and only 3% do. We need to work really hard. And we need everybody's help to inspire neighbors and family to be that blood donor so we can move that 3% to, you know, what it was maybe, you know, a decade ago and even, you know, even stronger than that. It truly does take talking about it. So my biggest task is share this story, share the message, because it's too late when it's your loved one to be thinking about it. Connie Esparza and Emily Alanese of the American Red Cross. Thank you for joining us on At Issue. If you want to hear the program again, you can do so at WBM Newsradio.com, the Odyssey app and the IHeartRadio app. Join us next week for another edition of At Issue. Until then, I'm Rob Hart. News Radio 1059 WBBM. I'm Susie Welch, the host of Becoming You, a podcast where I help you stop living by default and start living by design. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.