COVID put a dent in blood supplies. These two drives encourage LS residents to help

Months after the COVID-19 pandemic took the United States by storm, the national blood shortage continues, and Lee’s Summit is no exception.

“Unfortunately, the blood shortage continues and there’s no end in sight,” said Chelsey Smith, outreach and communications coordinator for the Community Blood Center. “Most schools and businesses are still not allowing us to hold blood drives on site, which means we’re still struggling to make up for a 70 percent loss in blood collections.”

The City of Lee’s Summit has now hosted 95 blood drives with the Community Blood Center, and is proud to continue to support these life-saving events, said Eric Stoyanov, public communications coordinator for the City of Lee’s Summit.

“It’s inspiring to see how our community has answered the call to donate, especially in times of need,” Stoyanov said. “Their generosity has resulted in the collection of more than 3,000 units of blood, helping thousands of patients in the Kansas City area. We hope to help even more people in the community with this upcoming blood drive.”

And more generosity is needed, said Smith. She explained that the shortage was a direct result of the pandemic, and although the national blood supply has been somewhat stable in recent weeks, certain regions are struggling more than others.

“Our shortage specifically affects all of the Kansas City metro area, including Topeka and St. Joseph regions,” Smith said. “We typically like to maintain a seven-day supply of blood on the shelf at all times: We’ve not had over a four-day supply since April.

“We are still able to provide our hospitals with their day-to-day blood needs and are making every effort to avoid disruptions in hospital services. However, our supply needs to be built back up to the seven-day supply so that we’re prepared in the event of an emergency.”

Susie Krug, chief nursing officer at Saint Luke’s East Hospital, said the blood shortage is directly affecting the supply to hospitals.

“People are avoiding many of the activities that they did with larger groups, as these drives were open to the public in large conference rooms throughout the city. Now, with limiting the number of people congregated in an area, fewer people are responding,” Krug said.

“In addition, many of the locations have limited public access to reduce overall staff exposure. As organizations learn how to redesign how we manage these programs, we will have more frequency of requests and more alternate locations to donate.”

Two organizations have heard the urgent call to donate: the City of Lee’s Summit and the Rotary Club of Downtown Lee’s Summit.

The City of Lee’s Summit is hosting a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Gamber Community Center, and the Rotary Club is hosting a drive from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 29 downtown at 322 S.E. Douglas St.

Frank Blanck, president elect of the Lee’s Summit Rotary Club, said hosting a blood drive is a way to support the community and give back in a time of need. And those who fear being in a crowd should know that precautions are being taken, he said.

“I gave blood through the CBC early on in the pandemic and I know they were geared up for people’s safety,” Blanck said. “People need to realize that many of us have been fortunate enough to avoid the devastating effects of the virus. Those of us who are lucky enough to be healthy should step up and donate.”

Krug said donation is one action an individual can make to help help those with the virus.

“Blood administration is needed for a variety of ailments and is essential to recovery of many illnesses,” Krug said.

“COVID does have some complexities related to blood and blood products that are essential for treating this disease, so we need donations of blood. And for those who have recovered from COVID, (we need) their donation of convalescent plasma. Every unit counts.”

Appointments can be made to donate blood at savealifenow.org/coronavirus.