Star Tribune
Pandemic still suppressing blood donations in Minnesota
Minnesota’s blood supply for surgeries and transfusions is draining, in part because companies and schools haven’t resumed collection drives that they canceled during the pandemic.
Memorial Blood Centers announced an emergency shortage Thursday that left it below the recommended five- to seven-day stockpile to ensure an adequate supply for Minnesota hospitals. Supplies were down to a day or two for type O blood that any patients can receive, and for rarer type B negative blood.
“I liken it to having a case of long COVID. It just doesn’t seem to be getting any better,” said Phil Losacker, community relations manager for Memorial, which is the primary supplier of blood products to HCMC, Children’s Minnesota and other hospitals. “Our access to donors out in the community has been severely limited.”
A shortage after any holiday is common, especially Labor Day, but a combination of factors has made this one worse and possibly longer-lasting. The American Red Cross reported last week that it was sending more blood to U.S. hospitals than it was taking in and that it received 30,000 fewer donations than expected in August.
“Many corporations don’t host blood drives (any longer) because they have remote workers,” said Sue Thesenga, a spokesperson for Red Cross’ Minnesota and Dakotas region.
Blood collection centers were concerned before the pandemic about the lack of youth to replace longtime volunteers whose donations were slowing in their senior years. Matters worsened when COVID-19 emerged and donor events were canceled or curtailed to reduce the spread of the coronavirus that causes the infectious disease.
Memorial participated in 977 fewer blood drives in the first nine months of 2023 in Minnesota compared to the same time period in 2019. The result was a 47% decline in blood units collected and a 50% decline in first-time donors, who are more likely to take part in school or workplace events.
Minnesota’s two largest trauma centers, HCMC in Minneapolis and Regions Hospital in St. Paul, reported no impact on patient care yet and said all surgeries remained as scheduled.
Emergency declarations usually drive donors and prevent hospitals from reaching such crisis points, but that isn’t ideal, said Dr. Jed Gorlin, medical director for Memorial and chief medical officer for America’s Blood Centers, a national advocacy group. “We don’t want to train the public to only come in when there are these blood emergencies. What we want is to maintain people being regular blood donors.”
Memorial is simultaneously encouraging the resumption of school and corporate events, and nudging donors from past events to make appointments at its local collection centers. Red blood cells can be donated anywhere, but platelets also are in short supply, and are needed to prevent or reduce bleeding in surgeries and treatments. Platelets can only be donated at collection centers.
John Blackford of Chanhassen felt no claustrophobia serving on Navy submarines when he was younger, but he felt too squeamish to donate until he learned he had too much iron in his blood and that it was good for his health. His blood levels stabilized long ago, but the 42-year-old got in the habit of donating and was back at Memorial’s collection center at Eden Prairie on Saturday.
“I just feel good after I do it,” he said. “It’s good to give back. Its part of my Saturday routine — I just go here, bring a newspaper, read, get it done.”
A few chairs down, Wayzata High School English teacher Kathryn Kottke was grading a stack of literature essays while donating platelets, which takes a little over an hour.
“I can’t leave,” she said. “So I’m now a captive grader.”
Donors sometimes receive gift cards, beyond the snacks and drinks to rehydrate afterward, but giving blood is mostly an unpaid service. Blood center leaders are considering more incentives to invigorate the donor population, such as Surly Brewing’s popular offer over the past decade of a pint glass and a beer voucher in exchange for a pint of blood.
The Minneapolis beermaker is hosting its next collection event from 3-8 p.m. Wednesday, and expanded capacity at Memorial’s request because of the blood shortage. Other upcoming events are listed on the Memorial and Red Cross websites.
Gorlin has short-term optimism because high schools are back in session and many still host events that will replenish the blood supply. Memorial also will gain a wider donor pool when it switches Sept. 25 to conform with new federal guidelines.
Men who are sexually active with other men were generally barred from donating because of the elevated prevalence of HIV in that population, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found earlier this year that the policy was overcautious given the precision of modern blood testing for the sexually transmitted infection.
The Red Cross switched Aug. 7 to the new federal guidance, which removes sexual orientation from consideration but still defers donations by anyone who has had anal sex in the last three months with new or multiple partners.
Long term, Gorlin remains concerned about the generational shift and the fact that younger donors aren’t replacing older ones. At 67, he estimated he has donated 30 gallons of blood products in his lifetime.
For-profit companies pay people for their plasma, the liquid component of blood, and Gorlin said that might be a consideration to kickstart a new generation of donors.
“Will we be able to maintain a donor base without paying?” he asked. “I don’t know.”
Correction:
A previous version of the photo caption for this story mistakenly said Kathryn Kottke was donating plasma at Memorial Blood Center in Eden Prairie.
That hasn’t ebbed with Simpli-Fi. The startup incorporated in 2018 as a company based out of Florida that integrated technology systems together in commercial buildings to work as a single unit. But business sputtered when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and Campbell had to make staff cuts to his team of 16 employees. He called it one of “the worst times” of his life.
“But during that time is where we made a pivot,” Campbell said.
He set out to find a new technology, eventually spotting NASA’s electronic nose thanks to Brown Venture Group, a St. Paul based firm that supports Black, Latino and Indigenous tech startups. Campbell’s brother, Paul Campbell, is a partner at the firm but said he recused himself from the investment decision.
Chris Campbell was skeptical of the electronic nose’s capabilities at first but sprung for a commercialization license after spending a year researching the technology. By this past summer, he had moved the company to Minnesota and specifically the Osborne building because both are “known for device creation,” he said.
Simpli-Fi’s sensor packs some of the science of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry — which require huge machines — into a sensor the size of a dime, Campbell said. Using nanotubes, the sensor picks up metabolic qualities in the air and breath, he said.
For now, the company is focused on the C. diff-sensing Provectus Canary device, which scans the air around a hospital patient to detect the bacteria that causes the infection, which has gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea. The company is working toward the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval for using the sensor to detect various diseases.
A Minneapolis man was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for murdering his neighbor in their North Side apartment building last year.
Walter Lee Hill, 59, had pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree intentional murder. He will get credit for having served nearly a year in jail.
Police were called to the Gateway Lofts on W. Broadway Avenue last November on a report that someone was shot. Officers found Donald Edmondson, 60, dead on the floor of his apartment with a gunshot wound to the chest.
A video camera in the hallway showed Hill knocking on Edmondson’s door, reaching into his sweatshirt pocket and firing his gun once. Hill then left in his Lexus, which officers found near Elliot Park downtown.
They spotted Hill walking nearby, asked for his ID and arrested him when he said something to the effect that they had the right guy.
A witness told police they saw Hill shoot Edmondson, and another said there had been an ongoing dispute between the two. Two days before the murder, Hill had called police because he believed neighbors were breaking into his apartment.
In a statement, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Edmondson “should still be alive. A violent act committed with such disregard by Mr. Hill has taken him from his family. This sentence delivers accountability and protects our community, and I hope it brings some measure of peace to Mr. Edmondson’s loved ones as they attempt to move forward with their lives.”
ROCHESTER – Buoyed by strong growth in the health care industry, Minnesota’s third-largest city continues to outpace the rest of the state in job creation.
The Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area added about 7,000 jobs over the past year, a 6.3% year-to-year increase, according to the September jobs report from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). By comparison, Minnesota as a whole was up 1.2% during the same time period. The next closest region to Rochester was Mankato, which grew 1.6% year to year.
Much of the growth in Rochester MSA, which includes Dodge, Fillmore, Olmsted and Wabasha counties, was driven by a 15% year-to-year increase in the education and health services sector. The sector employed 62,435 people in the region in September, nearly half the overall workforce.
The strong job numbers come as Mayo Clinic breaks ground on the first phases of “Bold. Forward. Unbound. In Rochester.” The $5 billion project — the largest investment in Minnesota history — is expected to bring about 2,000 construction workers to Rochester in the coming years.
While Mayo has not said how many employees it plans to hire once the new facilities open, local economic development officials expect the impacts of the expansion to reverberate across the region.
“As their growth goes up, the rest of the economy grows as well,” said John Wade, president of the Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc. (RAEDI). “If you think about neighboring communities, too, there will be more housing opportunities and job opportunities and businesses looking to expand.”
Wade said he also sees potential for growth in other sectors tied to Mayo, such as hospitality, which makes up more than 8% of the region’s workforce. Precision manufacturing and medical technology were also identified as potential growth sectors.
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