CBC assists Michigan hospitals after school shooting, seeks type O donors

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

Credit: CONTRIBUTED

The Community Blood Center is assisting hospitals in Michigan after the Tuesday school shooting that killed four students and wounded seven others and now calling on local type O donors to help replenish the region’s supply.

“With this tragedy and hearing that there are at least seven people in critical condition, we felt we needed to help,” said CBC Hospital Lab Manager Gavin Patch.

Anne Darcy, resource sharing coordinator for Blood Centers of America, asked if CBC could provide units of type O positive and type O negative red cells to Versiti-Michigan blood center. CBC evaluated its supply and sent 25 units of O positive blood and 10 units of O negative.

Versiti-Michigan was seeking 100 units of type O positive and 25 units of type O negative.

CBC now is asking for the support of type O donors in order to lend more assistance to Versiti-Michigan and to replenish the local type O supply. Appointments are encouraged. Schedule online at www.DonorTime.com or call (937) 461-3220.

CBC faced its own shortage of type O in November and said maintaining a safe supply level is expected to be a challenge during the holiday season.

Approximately 38% of the population has type O-positive while only 7% has type O-negative. Both types are in constant demand. Type O positive can be transfused to patients with any positive blood type. O-negative is the universal blood type and can be transfused immediately to any patient in need.

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