Lawrence-area blood centers have issued an emergency call for donors as a nationwide shortage of blood reaches critical levels.

Community Blood Centers, an organization that supplies blood to hospitals, said last week its inventory of all major blood types was at “critical shortage levels.”

“The demand has just been higher this year,” said Chris Beurman, spokesman for Community Blood Centers in the Lawrence, Topeka and Kansas City area.

In fact, a little more than a week ago, the blood supply at northeast Kansas Community Blood Centers dwindled to enough to meet just one day’s demand, Beurman said.

The American Red Cross also had shortages in the past two weeks, said Bree Cox, spokeswoman for blood services in the American Red Cross Central Plains Region.

At one point, there was no stock of O-negative blood, one of two blood types in highest demand and which can be used by anyone no matter what their blood type, Cox said.

“That was a pretty serious situation for us,” Cox said.

The supply of A-negative blood was once down to 11 pints, when 70 pints are generally kept available. O-positive was down 100 pints from the preferred level of 300 pints, Cox said.

Community Blood Centers supplies blood to 75 hospitals, including Lawrence Memorial Hospital. The Red Cross Central Plains Region supplies blood to 107 hospitals in Missouri, Kansas and northern Oklahoma, but not Lawrence.

Nathan Markham, Lawrence, donates blood at Community Blood Centers, 15th Street and Kasold Drive. There is a critical blood shortage of all major blood types in northeast Kansas.

Despite the blood shortage, officials at LMH and University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., said no surgery schedules had been changed and no other trouble had yet surfaced because of the shortage.

But that doesn’t mean problems aren’t on the horizon.

“We are concerned that we won’t be able to keep up with our needs if we can’t keep our blood drives alive and strong,” said Belinda Rehmer, an LMH spokeswoman.

KU Hospital uses about 100 pints of blood a day, officials said. At LMH, from 130 to 170 pints of blood are used a month, or from about four to six per day, officials said. LMH also uses about 30 units of fresh frozen plasma per month, and from three to five plateletpheresis, or platelet transfusion packs, per month.

Patients needing blood primarily are trauma victims, oncology and post-surgical patients, hospital officials said.

The need for blood is increasing at LMH, mainly because of the growing Oncology Center, Rehmer said. Yet the hospital’s last couple of blood drives have been disappointing, she said.

Blood donations traditionally hit their lowest level of the year in January, but have been even lower this year.

There are several reasons for this year’s shortage, blood collection officials said.

The early outbreak of the flu kept many people from donating, Beurman said. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays fell on dates that gave most people four-day weekends, and donating blood was low among their priorities, he said.

Medical technology also is increasing and new treatments for cancer and other medical problems require more blood, Beurman said.

At Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., one patient used up a one-day supply of red blood cells, Beurman noted.

“There have been more and more cases we’ve seen where one individual uses quite a bit of blood themselves,” he said.

Moreover, the younger generation isn’t donating blood as much as decreasing numbers of the World War II generation have done, Cox said.

Some people just don’t like needles, Beurman said.

“It is a lot to ask of someone to take a needle in the arm,” Beurman said.

Only 5 percent of the population regularly donates blood, yet 60 percent is eligible, Cox and Beurman said.

Community Blood Centers are open almost daily for people to donate blood. The Douglas County Chapter of the American Red Cross does not have a blood collection center. It conducts quarterly blood drives.