A new study says spikes in blood donations following events such as mass shootings aren’t exactly useful.
Published in the The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, the study says blood is often “wasted” because too much is collected.
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Researchers explained that most donated blood is used, but some of it is at risk of “being outdated and going unused.”
It cited the example of last year’s Las Vegas mass shooting, which left 58 dead and more than 800 injured.
The study looked at data collected from Las Vegas health care organizations, which showed that 220 victims were hospitalized and 68 of them were in critical condition.
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The United Blood Services took 791 donations immediately after the shooting, but about 17 per cent of the donations were “wasted” or thrown out, the study explained.
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The study questioned whether a call for donations is really needed after events like mass shootings.
“The public call for blood donors was not necessary to meet immediate demand and led to resource waste,” the study read.
Hailu Mulatu, who works with Canadian Blood Services, told Global News that he’s not sure exactly why donated blood is wasted following spikes in the U.S.
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“To my knowledge, that doesn’t happen,” he said. “I’ve never heard of that, and especially not in our case.”
Mulatu said Canadian Blood Services has also seen spikes after incidents such as the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan and the Toronto van attack, but supplies are never wasted.
“It helps us with our inventory when we have a spike,” he said, explaining the spike is often not dramatic or unmanageable like “500 per cent more than we need.”
“It will just be some more units than normal, then we have some more blood on our shelf to be able to supply hospitals for their demand.”
Such spikes also help motivate people to give more regularly, Mulatu said.
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“It also helps with awareness. Those people who have never donated before end up donating for the first time because of a tragedy, they become regular blood donors. So it is a positive thing, it’s never a negative thing at all.”
One thing both U.S. researchers and Canadian Blood Services can agree on is that clinics need blood donations throughout the year.
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“The need for blood is constant throughout the year, and we encourage Canadians to donate as regularly as possible. That is what helps us keep up with hospital demands.”
Dr. James Lozada, one of the researchers involved in the study, said that is the message he also hopes to send.
“It’s important to convey the message that blood donation is extremely important, but it’s important to do it regularly throughout the year,” Lozada told CNN.
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