Des Moines-based LifeServe Blood Center sends blood supplies to Texas after deadly school shooting
LifeServe Blood Center in Des Moines is sending blood products to Texas following a deadly mass shooting at an elementary school.
The rampage in Uvalde, Texas, which left at least 19 children and two adults dead Tuesday, is the deadliest shooting at a U.S. elementary school since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, according to USA TODAY.
Danielle West, director of marketing and public relations for LifeServe, said the center will send blood to Texas today and remain on-call to provide more as needed.
"Lifeserve is one of the blood centers on-call this week, and the blood center in Texas that was impacted by the shootings yesterday has activated BERC and asked the blood centers that are on call this week to send blood products because they need them," West said.
Though blood centers have typically shared blood when needed, the new Blood Emergency Readiness Corps ensures that the process goes smoothly. BERC is composed of over 35 blood centers from across the country, including LifeServe, that collect extra blood units and send them to places in emergency on a rotating, on-call schedule.
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"I would say this is one of the bigger tragedies that we’ve faced," West said. "I know in the past we’ve sent blood products to Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan for other reasons, but I think this is one of the more nationwide tragedies that has really touched everybody across the country and has also activated BERC for that reason."
The products sent to Texas included bags of O negative, the universal donor type, and O positive, another commonly-used blood type.
"We have sent a few O negatives and a few O positives because those are used most often in trauma situations," West said. "When a patient is bleeding out and there’s no time to blood type that patient, they’ll give them O negative because that’s the universal blood type, anyone can receive O negative."
LifeServe is the sole supplier of blood products to 129 hospitals across Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. West said more donations are needed to keep the Des Moines area stocked and set aside blood for centers using BERC in emergencies.
"We absolutely need blood donations here locally," West said. "Our community blood supply has been lower than we like it for the first quarter of the year. So hopefully people can come out to give, not only to help their community blood supply, but also to make sure we have enough that we can continue to send to the Texas area as well."
To find a location or plan a blood donation, visit the LifeServe Blood Center website.
Grace Altenhofen is a news reporting intern for the Des Moines Register. She can be reached at galtenhofen@registermedia.com or on Twitter @gracealtenhofen.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines blood center sends supplies to Texas after school shooting
