Baystate Announces Urgent Need for Type-O Blood

SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Health, like many other hospitals in the region, is experiencing an urgent need for O-negative and O-positive blood.

For patients at Baystate Health, collecting blood and platelets is vital to patient care. Donations help everyone from trauma victims to newborns to cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and more.

“With last week’s poor weather conditions and the holiday season, our blood supply at Baystate Health has been compromised,” said Amy Benson, recruiter for the Baystate Health Blood Donor Program. “Now we are reaching out to the community to ask as many people as possible to help.”

Each year, more than 5,800 Baystate patients receive more than 23,000 transfusions of blood products. With the Baystate Blood Donor Program, 100{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of all blood and platelet donations made to the program are used locally in Western Mass.

While any donation can help, type-O donors are special in the amount of people they can save.

“Type O is very useful because type-O-negative is a universal donor, so their blood can help save anyone, and type-O-positive is the second-most-common blood type, “ said Benson. “We are a level-one trauma center, so we need type-O blood on hand at all times to save the life of anybody that comes through the door.”

The Baystate Blood Donor Center is open every Sunday. Walk-ins are welcome, or donors may make an appointment by calling (413) 794-4600.