Monday, September 27, 1999
Shortages persist at Hoxworth
Demand for blood unrelenting
BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Every time the University Air Care helicopter took off last week, Marsha Terry shuddered.
The whining engine and chopping rotor blades were plainly audible and all-too-visible from the Hoxworth Blood Center headquarters right next to University Hospital.
The noise meant somebody was hurting badly in Greater Cincinnati. Maybe bleeding. Maybe dying.
“That helicopter has been very active this week,” said Ms. Terry, spokeswoman for the Hoxworth Blood Center. “And every time it goes up I wonder, do we have enough blood?”
The good news: Hundreds of Tristate residents responded to Hoxworth's third emergency blood appeal of the summer.
The bad news: Hoxworth still needs more blood, not only right now, but every day for months and years to come.
Despite 446 blood donations collected Wednesday and 579 units given Thursday, Hoxworth was short more than 220 units of blood — all type O — on Friday.
Collection numbers for the weekend were not available, but Hoxworth was hoping for extra turnout today at neighborhood blood centers to return to normal supply levels.
“We'll know better on Tuesday how we're doing,” Ms. Terry said.
The latest emergency appeal was triggered, in part, by Hurricane Floyd but reflects a long-running problem with the local blood supply.
Hoxworth regularly falls short of collecting its needed 300 units a day. Typically, the blood bank makes up the difference by spending about $1.5 million a year importing blood from other cities.
While some cities have enough blood to export, Cincinnati's low donation rates leave local patients exposed to whatever disaster or event comes along to disrupt blood supplies.
Hurricane Floyd was the latest disruption, but all it takes to mess up the Tristate blood flow is a long holiday weekend, a snowstorm or bad car wrecks happening the same day.
“It's not like the United Way campaign, where they reach a goal and distribute the money through the rest of year,” Ms. Terry said. “We need 300 units every day, just to maintain supplies.”
Tristate residents have been rolling up their sleeves all over town. On Wednesday, the busiest of Hoxworth's seven neighborhood centers was Fort Mitchell, Ky., where 69 donors showed up.
On Thursday, 93 people gave blood at the Anderson Township center, well above the 20 who give on a typical day. In Westwood, 79 donors showed up to give on Thursday, a day when Hoxworth's Western Hills center is normally closed.
Concern about long-term stability is why Hoxworth counts so heavily on corporate blood drives. That's also why the blood bank continues to seek donors from those who have never given or haven't given in years.
Blood banks estimate that fewer than 5 percent of those eligible to give blood do so in any given year.
“If everybody who was eligible gave once a year, there'd be no blood shortage anywhere,” Ms. Terry said.
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