Summer can be crunch time for blood banks, with the combination of more people vacationing or otherwise busy taking advantage of the weather and an increase in demand with more accidents sending people to the hospital.
"We do see the supplies start to wane as demand typically goes up but the current situation where we're at is that after three months of that things are really low across the board," says Eric Lindsey is with the Kentucky Blood Center.
Donations have drifted down the past few years and Lindsey says multiple factors, including a jump in demand over the last week, have made it more difficult — or sometimes impossible — to deliver the requested blood to the more than 70 hospitals the KBC serves.
"Specifically, we've seen a 40 percent increase in transfusions over the last week, so we have historical trends where demand is up and supply is down, but I think the reason why we're in the situation we're in right now is it's exacerbated even even more.," Lindsey adds.
Current shortage applies to all blood types with A negative listed as the most critical.
See blood type supply levels at KBC
The shortage coincides with a recent announcement by the Red Cross, which declared a national blood supply crisis for only the second time in its history. While the season always puts a strain on blood supplies Lindsey says it's unusual to run this low and not be able to meet 100 percent of hospital needs.
Anyone interested in donating can find more information at kybloodcenter.org.