Below a One-Day Supply: The Blood Shortage Reaches Rutherford County, and Two October Drives Are Already on the Calendar
There is a particular quiet to a blood donation room: the hum of a centrifuge, the crinkle of a juice-box straw, a nurse reading numbers off a cuff. This fall, that quiet carries more weight than usual in Rutherford County, because the national blood supply is still running on fumes.
In late July, the American Red Cross declared a national blood supply crisis — only the second time in the organization's history it has used that label. Summer donations had slid to their lowest level in four years, and the supply of type O positive blood, the type hospitals reach for most often, dropped below a single day's worth. The organization began limiting how much type O it could send to hospitals. Extreme heat, poor air quality and a summer of widespread illness all kept donors away from their appointments.
Two months later, the call in Murfreesboro has not gone quiet. Local blood leaders are still asking for type O positive and type O negative donors in particular, along with platelet donors, and they are careful to add that every blood type is needed.
Why type O matters so much
Type O negative is the universal donor: it can be given to almost any patient, which is why trauma teams keep it on hand when there is no time to test a patient's blood. Type O positive is the most common blood type in the country, so it is used in enormous volume. When those two run short, the whole system feels it. Platelets are their own problem. They are essential for cancer patients and surgery, but they last only a few days on the shelf, so the supply has to be refilled constantly rather than banked.
Where to give in Murfreesboro
Murfreesboro Blood Donation Center, 501 Memorial Blvd. The Red Cross's permanent local center takes appointments on a rotating schedule of days and times, which makes it the easiest option for anyone who wants to give this week rather than wait for a drive.
MTSU, 1737 Blue Raider Drive — Thursday, Oct. 22, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Middle Tennessee State has a long habit of turning blood donation into a competition, most famously its annual rivalry with Western Kentucky. (Here is how the Blue Raiders fared the last time around.)
First Presbyterian Church of Murfreesboro, 210 N. Spring St. — Friday, Oct. 23, noon to 6 p.m. A block off the Square, and the later hours make it workable for anyone who can't get away in the middle of a workday.
Appointments for all three can be booked at RedCrossBlood.org, through the Red Cross Blood Donor App, or by calling 1-800-RED CROSS. An appointment keeps the wait short.
Before you go
Donors generally need to be at least 17 — 16 with a parent's permission where state law allows — weigh at least 110 pounds and feel healthy on the day they give. Eat a real meal beforehand, drink extra water, and bring a photo ID. A whole-blood donation takes about an hour from check-in to cookie, though the draw itself is closer to ten minutes. Whole-blood donors can give again every 56 days; platelet donors can give far more often.
Rutherford County has spent the last decade adding people faster than almost anywhere in Tennessee. More residents means more car wrecks, more surgeries, more births and more patients in treatment — and every one of them draws on a supply that exists only because a neighbor rolled up a sleeve. An hour on Memorial Boulevard, on Blue Raider Drive or on Spring Street is one of the simplest ways to keep that supply from running dry.
