LYNN ― The American Red Cross reports an emergency need for blood donors as the number of elective surgeries and organ transplants rise, causing depletion of blood inventory.
The country is experiencing a greater need for blood because hospitals are doing more surgeries that were postponed during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand is up while the supply has decreased, said Jeff Hall, spokesperson for the American Red Cross (ARC) of Massachusetts. The holiday season is a tough time to recruit donors as well.
Currently, Massachusetts is doing better than other states but the supply of blood in the Commonwealth is only slightly outpacing the demand, said Hall. Less than 10 percent of people who are eligible to donate do so nationwide, while blood supplies are needed for trauma surgeries and cancer treatments.
There is only one fixed ARC site on the North Shore ― the Danvers Red Cross Blood, Platelet and Plasma Donation Center. The site stays pretty busy, said its manager Samuel Henebury. They go through 30-40 people a day, and have stayed open throughout the pandemic.
“The need is always constant,” said Henebury.
The site is open seven days a week. Besides whole blood, they collect power red cells, the part of blood used every day for those needing transfusions; plasma, used to treat patients in emergency situations because AB plasma can be given to anyone regardless of their blood type; and platelets, tiny cells that form clots and stop bleeding, which are most often used by cancer patients or for life-threatening illnesses and injuries.
About 80 percent of donors at the Danvers site are regulars, said Henebury, from all over the North Shore. Most donors are older, but people can donate blood as early as 16 years old with parental consent, or at 17.
William P. Smith, a retired USPS worker, was sitting in one of the plasma-donation beds on Monday. He was squeezing a ball in his left hand to pump blood out of his right arm through a tube to a machine that separates platelets. The rest of the blood was put back into his right arm. Smith had a set of overhead headphones on and was watching a movie on a screen in front of him.
Smith comes to Danvers from Malden to donate platelets twice a month. He has been doing so for about 10 years. Once a friend of his told him that it helps children who have cancer. His wife, Branda, died from cancer a year ago and now he does blood donations in her memory.
“I am no one special. I just think of children with cancer,” Smith said.
He gets a burning sensation once in a while during a needle prick, but otherwise he doesn’t feel anything during the procedure.
“I say my blood gets a ride on the merry-go-round,” Smith said.
The process of blood donation is streamlined. Each donor usually donates one pint of blood per session. Donors of whole blood can come in every eight weeks. An appointment usually takes one hour to an hour and a half. After the donation, the individual is observed for 10-15 minutes and offered some refreshments. Most of the appointments (98 percent) go without an issue, said Hall.
Before a donation, Henebury recommends having a healthy meal, drinking plenty of fluids and getting a good rest the night before.
Sarah Garriepy, of Beverly, was waiting for her turn to donate blood on Monday. She has done it a few times before. Recently, she has received an email about the blood shortage and decided to donate again.
“They are really good here,” Garriepy said. She found the process efficient. “Usually, in and out.” Garriepy said that she keeps coming back, because donating blood makes her feel good about herself.
The ARC also collects blood through mobile drives, which had to be modified when the pandemic started. Before COVID, donors could just walk into a blood drive. Right now, everyone needs to schedule an appointment on the ARC website or app. This change has greatly reduced wait times, however; the beds had to be moved further apart, which reduced the number of donors that a site can accommodate per day.
“If we can’t get enough beds, we don’t go back,” said Hall.
To make a mobile blood drive cost effective, it has to collect at least 30 units of blood. Potential donors get tested for iron, anemia, elevated blood pressure or fever. In case some individuals don’t pass these tests, the ARC tries to schedule up to 45 people per day.
David Solimine Jr., of Lynn, did his first blood donation at 17 in high school.
“Probably with a little bit of peer pressure and encouragement from teachers,” he said.
He later organized blood drives at the Knights of Columbus for nearly 30 years. Now Solimine is on the Board of Directors of the northeast chapter of the ARC. He chairs the Biomedical Committee and helps set up blood drives in the communities throughout the region.
“The most important thing we have is our health, and if you are having a health crisis and you need blood, my attitude is, if you are going to be on the receiving end, then you should also be on the donating end, too,” said Solimine.
After the worst of the pandemic, the focus is on reintroducing mobile drives and finding spaces that would accommodate new COVID space requirements, Solimine said. They are also trying to engage more African-American donors.
“We are looking for businesses who would host blood drives for their employees and the general public, too,” said Solimine.
His goal is to ramp up blood drives in Lynn to up to 50 a year. There are currently monthly drives at the Knights of Columbus and YMCA. Solimine said they are working on doing monthly drives at City Hall and restarting drives at local high schools in 2022.
“If we get people to donate blood as a young person it takes the apprehension out of it,” said Solomine. “You can be saving somebody’s life.”
The next mobile drives in Lynn will be on Nov. 9 at the Knights of Columbus, from 2-7 p.m.; on Nov. 18 at Demakes family YMCA, from 10 a.m.- 3 p.m.; and on Dec. 7 at the Knights of Columbus, from 2-7 p.m. To make an appointment go to redcross.org or download the American Red Cross app.
