Sioux Falls Community Blood Bank blood mobile. Photo from SFCBB.
SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO.com) – The Sioux Falls Community Blood Bank (Avera McKennan Hospital & Sanford USD Medical Center) has declared a severe blood shortage. Just coming off of a four-day holiday weekend and experiencing record blood usage in the most recent weeks, Community Blood Bank is critically short of blood type “O”.
“The holiday season is upon us and we continue to see record blood usage at our local hospitals. The demand continues to outpace blood collections. Declaring a critical blood shortage is determined by evaluating the potential collections in the short term and the anticipated usage within the next 48 to 72 hours. Community Blood Bank has declared a critical blood shortage several times throughout 2021. We are experiencing a severe shortage in the area and see no relief from the amount of blood that is being transfused in the short term,” states Ken Versteeg, Executive Director, Community Blood Bank. “It has been hard to catch-up and build a stable supply of blood for our community hospitals when we are experiencing some of the highest blood usage in our blood bank’s history. Just as we see some improvement, we have several unexpected calls for blood that places us in a critical state once again. Please donate blood when the bloodmobile is in your community.”
Community Blood Bank is joining forces to boost the community’s blood supply and impact local patients’ lives by hosting a series of community blood drive.
Donors must be at least 17 years old (16 years old with a signed parent consent form), weigh 110 lbs or more and be in good general health. It is recommended that a person eat and drink plenty of fluids prior to donating blood. Please bring an ID with you at the time of donation. For more information log onto www.cbblifeblood.org.
(The Community Blood Bank contributed to this report)
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