Community Blood Drives Seek Donors

Area Supply at Critically Low Level, Officials Report

By Andrea Halpern

Area blood supply levels have remained critically low in recent weeks, and community blood drives are being held continuously in Farmingdale, Bethpage and Melville in order to meet an increased need for the life-saving fluid, Long Island Blood Services (LIBS) officials reported last week.

The drives in Farmingdale, Bethpage and Melville are in addition to over 70 other ones throughout Long Island. The community efforts are key to replenishing the blood supply, according to Linda Levi, a spokesperson for the New York Blood Center (NYBC), of which LIBS is a division. "Without them, we couldn't meet the demand," she said, noting that in addition to the NYBC's permanent donation centers, the community drives help reach the daily collection goal of 1600 pints of blood for the New York metropolitan area. "Unfortunately, right now, things are a little slow, so we need every donation we can get."

The blood supply level is at such a low level, Levi said, that surgeries are at risk of being cancelled in the metropolitan area, although she has not heard of this actually happening as a result of the current shortage. Nevertheless, she noted, NYBC is encouraging people to donate now so the situation does not reach such severity. "We have about half the blood inventory that we are comfortable with having," she said, referring to the NYBC's supply.

Levi added that the center currently has between one and two days' worth of a supply of type O blood, which can be given to people of all blood types. "We like to have a week's supply," she noted.

Levi attributed the low metropolitan blood supply level to three main factors. First, she said, blood levels usually decline during the winter holiday season, because regular donors are preparing for festivities or are away on vacation.The shortage caused by the arrival of the holidays has been compounded by an increased demand for blood, spurred by the postponement of surgeries until after the holidays. Hospitals are also contending with a national blood shortage, which usually also occurs during this time of year, but which Levi said is more severe this year than in recent years. This has limited local blood banks' outside source of blood, she noted.

The local community blood drives are being held at St. Kilian Church in Farmingdale on Feb. 22 between 9 a.m and 2:30 p.m., at Mid-Island Hospital in Bethpage on Feb. 3 between 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., at JFK Middle School in Bethpage on Feb. 25 between 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., and at Lucent Technologies in Melville on Feb. 17 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Rebecca Miller, who is organizing the drive at Mid-Island, noted that this is the first time the hospital, which has conducted employee blood drives in the past, has organized a public drive. Last year, the drive received between 40 and 50 donations from employees. The hospital decided to open the drive to the public, because, she said, "It would be nice to double that, with people from the town and area coming in." The critically low blood supply level also prompted the hospital to extend the drive to the public, Miller added.

NYBC services more than 200 hospitals throughout New York and New Jersey, including about 50 on Long Island. "Patients in those hospitals are really relying on the New York Blood Center to deliver the blood they need," Levi said, adding, "We constantly need to replenish what we ship out." Those 200 metropolitan hospitals, to which NYBC provides over 2,200 pints of blood per day, serve approximately 20 million people.

In addition to helping the NYBC replenish their supply, a person's donation may help the donor or his or her loved ones, because nine out of 10 people will need a blood transfusion at some point in their lives, according to Levi. She offered another reason to get out to the location donation centers. "It's really, short, sweet, and simple," she said. "You're saving lives."

Further information about donating blood may be obtained by calling Long Island Blood Services at their Melville headquarters at 752-7300 or 1-800-933-2566.