Impact of blood donors, emergency readiness stressed in aftermath of Madison school shooting

 

MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Community blood supplies can be stretched following a mass casualty, but there are protections in place, as we learned Monday.

Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin's main location is in Milwaukee, but they're part of a nationwide blood emergency readiness corps committed to being prepared by storing extra units in emergency reserve.

"So for a mass casualty, more often than not, not only will the community be affected in the local sense but usually the whole region can be affected," said Dr. Alcinda Flowers, associate medical director of Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin.

In the hours after the Madison school shooting Monday, the Milwaukee blood donation center still hadn't been called on to help, but they know that could change on a dime.

"One trauma victim can sometime use 100 units of blood. So when you have multiple victims, it really can wipe out a region," said Dr. Flowers.

Another consideration is that patients' needs may change as days pass. Also, the shooting's coming at a time of year when blood donations tend to be slower.

"We'll use everything we have on the shelves right away and then that'll clear out. You know, what we have for the upcoming days for everybody else in the hospital and everybody else that was needing blood. So it'll be really important in the next few days to restock the shelves because that blood will have already been used, but getting the levels back up becomes the challenge," said Dr. Flowers.

They say it's especially important to replenish O-positive blood levels because O-positive is universally accepted, and it tends to be in shortest supply.