TOPEKA (KSNT) – The Red Cross is sounding the alarm: the country is now in a severe emergency blood shortage. A local hospital is urging people to donate.
Stormont Vail Health in Topeka hosted a blood drive on Jan. 21. The hospital is currently seeing a reduced availability from its blood supplier, particularly O-negative blood.
Taylor Bugg, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said no patients have been impacted, but they’re taking extreme caution with their existing blood supply.
“But we’re just really keeping a close eye on that and really being very conscious of when we’re using the units that we do have on hand,” Bugg said.
Around 60% of adults can donate blood, but only about 3% do.
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