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 Blood drive at church July 11 to help with shortage

A blood drive for the American Red Cross will be hosted at Fayetteville First United Methodist Church Sunday July 11 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Georgia is experiencing a severe blood shortage, with just one-third of a day’s supply of O-negative and O-positive on hand, said Candace Gulden of the American Red Cross.

“That’s very scary when you’re going into a holiday weekend,” Gulden said.

Both types are critical needs as O-negative is the universal blood type and is used by emergency rooms when there is no time to test a patient’s blood type, Gulden noted. O-negative is also the blood type given to newborns when an immediate transfusion is needed, Gulden said.

Donors with type B blood are also particularly needed, Gulden added.

“We need all donors, but especially anybody who is an O or B blood type,” Gulden said.

Some people give once a year, but they may not realize they can give every 56 days, Gulden noted.

The blood shortage is due to several factors related to summertime: the Red Cross isn’t getting donations from blood drives hosted at colleges and high schools during the year which account for 20 percent of the state’s blood donations, Gulden said. Also, many regular donors are on vacation and aren’t available to donate, she added.

The shortage has gotten so bad that the Red Cross is moving blood from hospital to hospital to try and meet the needs for emergencies, Gulden said.

“Every single day there are patients in the hospital who receive blood,” Gulden said. “We need it.”

Typically, Georgia is unable to produce enough donated blood to meet its own demands, so it has to borrow from other states, Gulden said. But with the summer shortages hitting across the country, there isn’t enough blood to go around, she added.