While calls for improved gun safety laws have yet to yield action, there is an impressive response to pleased for increased blood donation.
The Kentucky Blood Center says while their supply is doing better right now.
They hope this trend will continue.
We have seen an uptick in donations in wake of the shootings.
We've been blown away by the people that want to want to do something to help and give back.
And so we have seen, whether it's here in Lexington or obviously in Louisville, we have seen people come out and donate blood.
We really need going forward as people become regular donors, I think the thing that people kind of lose sight sometimes of blood donation is that blood has to be on the shelves when you need it.
So whether it's for, you know, a trauma like what we saw last week, a car accident, whether it's for treating diseases like cancer, organ transplant, whatever it is, when the need is there, the blood has to be on the shelves.
It's a proactive gesture.
And so we're hopeful from last week, more than anything, is that people going forward donate more regularly or if you've never done it for start to donate so that when unfortunately things like this happen or wrong again, whatever the need is that that blood is already there.
We are in constant communication, whether it's for an event like what happened the past week in Louisville.
For anything else, we're in communication with our hospitals to understand what their needs are.
If they give us a call and say, Hey, we're really short on supplier, we need this certain blood type, we're going to respond as quickly as we can.
But again, it goes back to what we were talking about before.
The biggest thing is making sure that the blood is there so that if something, you know, God forbid, something happens like that or a correction or whatever it might be, that the blood is already there to be able to help those people in need at that time.
Comparing 2019 to 2023, I mean, it's just been a completely different, different scenario for us.
I mean, far too often they're not.
We're having to make you know, if I just think about last year, it seemed like every few weeks we were we were begging people to come in because we were in what we call a critical or urgent need.
That means we only have about a half day supply or less, which is really worrisome if you think about it.
If you're someone going into the hospital that needs blood, whatever the need is to know that there only might be a half day supply or even less is really troubling.
We just we don't want to ever be there right now for our different blood types, for about a two or three day supply, we consider really good, healthy blood supply to be three or four.
So we've we're in a good position, just not great.
And so we think we can do a lot better.
According to the Kentucky Blood Center, they are in critical need of blood.
Type A, B, negative.