(Lifeserve photo)
Multiple tornadoes tore through the Texas Panhandle town of Perryton last Thursday, killing three people, and Iowa blood donors helped Texas hospitals to treat the dozens of wounded.
LifeServe Blood Centers in Iowa are part of a national network called the Blood Emergency Readiness Corps or BERC. LifeServe spokeswoman Danielle West says when there’s a disaster in one area of the country, blood centers elsewhere can respond immediately. “They received blood last week from a few blood centers and now it’s really a standby situation where we’re just waiting to hear more from them,” West says, “but I would definitely urge all Iowans to come out and donate blood as soon as they can because our community blood supply is not as high as we would like it to be either.”
BERC includes 36 blood centers nationwide that commit to preparing for mass transfusion disasters by collecting extra units for an emergency reserve. West is calling on all Iowans to donate a pint, whatever their blood type. “Usually O-negative and O-positive are used most often in trauma situations because they can go to the most patients,” West says, “but really all of our blood types across the board right now are lower than we’d like them to be. We’re urging any blood donor, new, if it has been a while, or if they’re a consistent donor, to come in as soon as they can.”
LifeServe is on-call though BERC every three weeks to help if needed. When on-call, LifeServe sets aside units of type O-positive and O-negative blood for possible deployment. If they’re not needed, the units are returned to the regular inventory for local use. West says this week’s hot weather is a reminder that blood is always in high demand. “As we head into the summer, our physicians refer to summer as ‘trauma season’ because there are more accidents, people are more active, the need for blood increases,” West says, “so we’re hoping people can come out as soon as they can because we know we’re going to need it as we head into July 4th and some of our busy summer time.”
LifeServe provides blood and blood products to 158 hospitals in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. To donate, call 800-287-4903 or visit www.lifeservebloodcenter.org.