Community Blood Center (CBC) has announced a blood emergency following a summer of low donor turnout. Contributing to the shortage are the recent Labor Day holiday, back-to-school activities, and a prolonged 50% decrease in youth and first-time donors. The region’s blood supply is well below the optimal 5-7 days and while all blood types are needed, types O+, O-, B-, and platelets are critically low. And our community is not alone, blood shortages are happening across the country, with multiple centers urgently calling for blood donations.

The sustained loss of youth and first-time donors and fewer organizations hosting blood drives, remote and blended work schedules are all combined to have a devastating impact on local blood supply and the nation’s blood supply. There is no surplus in the nation’s blood supply to help out centers that experience seasonal shortages and young and first-time donors missed the life-saving act of giving blood for the three-plus years during the pandemic and are seeing the impact now.

Fitzgibbon Hospital will be holding a blood drive from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 19 in classrooms 1,2 and 3.

To schedule an appointment visit <https://donate.savealifenow.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/78923>

CBC provides over 90 percent of the blood used by hospitals throughout the Greater Kansas City metropolitan area, as well as eastern Kansas and western Missouri.

Photo courtesy of Community Blood Center