"I just feel like it's a little bit-at least on my part-that I can do to help out," said Rhonda Rogers. A senior medical technologist in molecular pathology, she has visited the American Red Cross blood drive site in the Duke Clinic every 56 days for the past year. "It makes me feel good."
Like many of the site's donors, Rogers is on a first-name basis with the people who work there. Within the cozy atmosphere of the Duke Clinic, Rogers is one of a few donors engaging in the fight against an enormous blood shortage.
Tom Oppenheimer, assistant director of the hospital donor site, explained that he has not seen such an incredible shortage since he began working with the Red Cross two years ago. They have only half a day's supply of type O blood and have reached critically low levels of type A and B, he said. For example, the Carolinas Blood Services Region, one of the divisions of the American Red Cross, would like about 1,700 pints of type O positive blood, but they currently have only 380.
Oppenheimer and others working at the site said the shortage could be attributed to a number of causes.
Following Hurricane Bonnie, much of the blood supply in Durham had to be shipped to the coast to aid hurricane victims. Additionally, demand for blood increases annually, while their has been a consistent decrease in the number of donors.
"This drop in donations has been so long and so bad that we're really in dire need," said Judy Smith, team supervisor of the Duke Clinic site.
The overall need for blood is usually quite pressing. Beverly Brown, a former head nurse who now works for the American Red Cross, said she remembered times when her department had to postpone elective surgeries because the blood supply was so low.
Smith explained that once donated, blood is divided into at most four parts; red cells, plasma, anti-hemophilic factor and platelets. The latter can only last for five days, Smith said, so a five-day period without collection will wipe out a region's supply of platelets.
During the normal blood collection process, donors fill out histories before being given a mini-physical by one of the nurses. In the physical, the donor's ear is pricked to test the amount of iron in the blood. In order to be eligible to donate, iron count must be acceptable and the donor must be at least 17 and weigh more than 110 pounds.
Bleeding time is usually about 10 minutes, and the donor is treated to some complimentary cookies, cake or pizza afterward.
Oppenheimer, who will help direct this week's Bryan Center blood drive, said once blood is donated, it is taken to a nearby lab. Vans run from the collection site to the lab frequently, as the platelets will clot if the blood is not worked on within six hours.
Once at the lab, the blood is separated, typed and tested for a variety of diseases including hepatitis, HIV and syphilis, Oppenheimer explained. In addition to these precautions, donors may privately place a sticker on their donor form indicating that their blood should not be used because they may have engaged in risky activity. The American Red Cross, however, does not keep track of the numbers of people who do not want their blood used.
"Because it's a voluntary process, people who do give are pretty safe," he said.
At the Duke Clinic site, employees and faculty at the hospital may give blood on company time, Oppenheimer added. And many who donate blood at the hospital use that blood to perform operations on their patients.
The entire region requests about 100,000 pints of blood per year. The Medical Center receives approximately 70,000. Brain surgery uses approximately 4 to 20 pints of blood, and organ transplants can use hundreds of units, easily wiping out a supply, Oppenheimer said.
"That is why things like the Bryan Center [blood drive] are so important," he said, refering to the drive that will be held in Meeting Room A from 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Each unit of blood can save up to four people.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.