Lifelines (Spring 2000) - January Appeal

January Appeal


	BCP nurses, Alana Tupasi and Scott Wolfe, with Darla Jaye, morning D.J. for K101 Radio.

When clocks struck midnight and 1999 turned into the year 2000, many people sighed with relief that the new year was off to a good start with fewer Y2K problems than had been anticipated.

Unfortunately, for BCP it was different. The Y2K bug DID strike. But it wasn’t a problem with computers. It was a problem with our blood supply - it was drying up.

Many factors contributed to the critical blood shortage. Among them was the flu season, which hit hard and caused many donors to become ineligible to give blood. Also, with vacations and shopping sprees during the holiday season, many people were too busy to donate, hospitals put off surgeries till after the new year and because of a nationwide blood shortage, BCP could not import blood - all this culminated into the worst blood shortage in several years.

By January 3rd, 2000, BCP’s inventory had a deficit of more than 450 units of Type O blood. Hospitals were put on the alert and the media was immediately informed of the crisis. And it got worse.


	Blood donor being interviewed by Fox News Reporter, Tyu Vu, during blood shortage.

The deficit of Type O blood worsened during the week and hospitals requiring more than five units of Type O blood were urged to postpone surgeries. Unfortunately, some surgeries were even canceled and patients had to be told to go home. Even California Pacific Medical Center and UCSF transplant centers were notified that there might not be enough blood available for Type O organ transplants.

Fortunately, Bay Area heroes came to the rescue - volunteers from the community came to BCP’s sites in droves to donate blood in an effort to alleviate the shortage. And it started working.

Blood donations greatly increased and by the following week, hospitals were able to resume normal surgery schedules as BCP fulfilled hospital orders. Media coverage continued during that week with the ABC Channel 7 Blood Drive bringing in both past and first-time donors and replenishing our blood supply.

During those two critical weeks, thanks to the many donors who responded to our emergency appeal, BCP collected 5,412 units of blood versus an average collection of 3,700 units - an increase of almost 50 percent!

We should not have to wait for a crisis to come forward to donate blood. Why wait for tomorrow? Bring your friends, family and relatives to any of our donation sites and be lifesaving Bay Area heroes today!