Blood Supply Shortages Could Impact WA Trauma Care

SEATTLE — UW Medicine is encouraging more Washingtonians to donate blood to help maintain vital trauma care as supply concerns continue and needs mount. While blood donation centers have contended with lower donations over the course of the pandemic, officials said winter weather over the holidays contributed to another significant drop.

Bloodworks Northwest is currently in a "code red emergency blood shortage," which activates after reaching very low supply levels for at least four days in a row. The American Red Cross said winter weather across the country canceled hundreds of blood drives and left more than 10,000 units of blood and platelets uncollected.

As shortages build, the number of people needing blood has grown.

"Over the last 10 to 20 years, the number of traumas has increased significantly," said Dr. Sam Arbabi, a trauma a burn surgeon at Harborview Medical Center. "We used to have 2,000 to 3,000 trauma admissions a year, and now we have 6,000 to 6,500. In part, that's because of our growing numbers in our Seattle metropolitan (area)."

Hospital leaders urge residents who can give blood to seek out an appointment or consider participating in a blood drive to help maintain the regional supply for patients of all kinds.

"The range of patients that need blood — from trauma patients, from somebody who's walking on the street and gets injured with a femur fracture, to somebody who gets hit in the belly with a liver injury, to somebody who has broken multiple ribs and they bled into their lungs, to somebody who has an ulcer, or somebody who had major burns that need operations — the list is so long, I cannot list it all in an hour," Arbabi said.

Learn more about donating blood in Washington via Bloodworks Northwest and the Red Cross.