Texas flooding shines light on need for blood donors at local blood centers across the country

Texas flooding shines light on need for blood donors at local blood centers across the country The tragedy in Texas serves as a reminder of why local blood centers across the country are always trying to keep their reserves at a high level.

DAYTON — The tragedy in Texas has put a huge spotlight on the needs of the thousands affected by the historic flooding. It also serves as a reminder of why local blood centers across the country are always trying to keep their reserves at a high level.

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The devastating and deadly flooding created the immediate need for emergency care for thousands of people. It also has a domino effect on hundreds of blood centers throughout the country, like Versiti in Dayton.

While routine blood drives and center donations in Texas are now on pause, it’s other centers like Versiti that help pick up the slack.

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“As part of Blood Centers of America and part of Berc, which is an emergency committee where other blood centers will pitch in for areas under a natural disaster, we need to keep our blood supplies up,” Tracy Morgan, Vice President of Donor Services at Versiti, said. “And we need even more blood to supplement their loss and to continue to serve our own communities.”

On a normal day, Versiti hopes to get over 300 donors or units each day. But when supplementing other regions that number, that number goes up by an additional 100 units a day.

Reaching that is a challenge any time, but even more so during the slower summer season.

“It does seem like there’s always something additional kind of coming our way that makes it a little bit more difficult to keep up with the demand, and the flooding in Texas, there was flooding in Asheville,” Morgan said. “We’ve had other IT issues and ransom attacks that have been difficult for the blood industry. So yeah, there’s extra blockers there that make it difficult for us to keep up, and we just are looking for the kind blood donors who are willing to help us with that and overcome the obstacles by just showing up when we need them.”

You can find more information about blood donation and how to schedule an appointment here.

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