Oklahoma Blood Institute Declares Emergency Blood Shortage

Donating blood: it’s painless, it only takes about an hour, it saves lives, and it is extremely necessary right now.

“Blood cannot be made in a lab, so when someone needs blood that means that someone else has to come here and donate it,” said Jacklyn Chappell with The Oklahoma Blood Institute.

But unfortunately, right now, donations simply are not happening. “We currently are under an emergency blood shortage, this is not something that we ever like to be in a position of,” said Chappell.

The shortage is creating life-threatening situations for anyone needing blood from an accident, or even in preparation for surgery. “When we declare an emergency blood shortage it usually means that we have a one-to-two-day supply, typically we like to have a three to four, probably a four-to-five-day supply,” said Chappell.

For people like Denise Dickerson, having blood available is a matter of life or death. “I was walking behind my car, and another car came off the road and for whatever reason smashed me between our two cars,” said Dickerson.

She was helping a stranded motorist during severe weather on the highway. “You could see the indention of my body in my bumper,” said Dickerson.

It is estimated the car that hit her was traveling about fifty-five miles per hour. “I was airlifted to Amarillo Texas, about an hour and a half away, and coded all the way to Amarillo, and when I got to Amarillo, I was bleeding clear IV bags, I had absolutely not blood volume,” said Dickerson.

She was crushed from the waist down and lost her lower left leg, but without blood, she knows things could have been a lot worse. “I wouldn’t have been here to see my grandkids born, I wouldn’t have been here to see my son become a husband and a father,” said Dickerson.

“It only takes an hour of your time, but you could be giving back someone the rest of their life,” said Chappell.

For information on giving blood visit www.obi.org.