Local hospitals and the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center have been receiving phone calls from community members asking if blood is needed to share with the victims of the mass shooting in El Paso, and how to donate.

While the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center has helped supply blood in the past to other communities facing mass casualty situations, at this point we have not had a request to provide blood to El Paso.

However, blood centers across the country have been reporting blood shortages this summer, and supplies are critically low in South Texas as well – a situation that leaves communities vulnerable in the case of trauma situations involving multiple injuries, and highlights the need for increased donations. 

For cancer patients and their families, blood transfusions make a world of difference. 

Amanda Adriano knows first-hand. Her 3-year-old daughter, Avalynn Ramos, is undergoing chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and she has seen the change happen before her eyes.

“I don’t think it dawned on us how pale she was,” Adriano said. “You could see the difference in her once she received the blood transfusion.”

Almost one in five blood transfusions go to cancer patients like Avalynn, and more than 40 percent of platelet transfusions each year are for those undergoing treatment for cancer.