Steep drop in donations causes emergency shortage of Type O Blood

DENVER — The public is asked to help reverse a blood shortage by making an appointment to donate in the coming days and weeks.

Vitalant said it is facing an emergency shortage of type O blood, citing a 30% blood donation shortfall during the Independence Day holiday week and overall low donor turnout this summer.

Type O blood has dropped to an 18-month low, according to Vitalant.

Type O blood is the most transfused blood type. Type O is critical because of its universal use in life-or-death situations.

O-negative can be transfused to patients of any blood type and is what emergency room doctors reach for in urgent situations. O-positive can support anyone with a positive blood type.

The nonprofit blood services provider urges all donors, especially those with type O, to make an appointment to give.

Vitalant said new donors and those that haven’t given in a while are especially needed and all blood types will help reverse the shortage. Approximately 46% of the population has type O blood to give.  

“No doctor should have to face the impossible choice of which patient receives the blood they need and who must wait,” Vitalant Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Ralph Vassallo, M.D. said. “There isn’t anything that can substitute for lifesaving blood donations from generous donors. Donors of all blood types continue to be urgently needed.”  

Donors of all blood types, especially those with type O, are urged to make an appointment.

You can make an appointment at a Vitalant donation center or blood drive in Colorado or Cheyenne online at vitalant.org or by calling 877-25-VITAL.

Vitalant has donation centers in Denver, Colorado Springs, Golden, Boulder, Greeley, Littleton, Parker, Westminster and Highlands Ranch. Vitalant also holds regularly-occurring mobile locations and pop-up blood drives.

To help encourage donations, through July 27, donors will automatically be entered to win a new car (valued up to $30,000).