Our Blood Institute has been experiencing an emergency blood shortage. Due to the extreme winter and seasonal illnesses, the blood supply not only in Wichita Falls but around the nation has taken a significant toll.
While it is a major problem now, the problem actually began around the time of COVID-19. With regular donors and new donors getting sick they were not able to give blood.
The recruitment manager for Our Blood Institute Jennifer Risinger said that there are many factors that caused the blood shortage.
“It’s really multifold. Right now, the biggest cause is that this is the 15 year high for this Flu outbreak. We haven’t seen this many people with the flu and illnesses in 15 years,” Risinger said.
Before being allowed to donate blood, the volunteers are asked how they are feeling, their temperature is taken and then they are asked to take a survey and answer some other questions. While they have to follow these steps beforehand, the Blood Institute has to take the donors at their word.
If someone is not feeling well Risinger said they won’t be allowed to donate.
“That has taken a big toll on us for probably the last five to six weeks. We have lost lots of donors because of not feeling well,” Risinger said.
Extreme winter weather has also taken a toll on the amount of blood donated to the institute.
“We have several instances throughout our service area, you know we cover Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, of bad weather. Whether it is stuff on the ground, or just bitter cold weather,” Risinger said.
With the extreme weather many schools had closed down, thus resulting in the cancellation of blood drives that were being held there.
“In the last two weeks with cancellations of either appointments, people who had individually scheduled an appointment to go somewhere to donate or the entire blood drive together, we’ve lost a little more than two thousand donors,” Risinger said. “ We need about twelve hundred donors per day.”
The blood drives and schools are not the only things being cancelled due to the weather, most surgeries in the hospitals are as well, which has helped the Blood Institute stay afloat.
“The only thing that’s pretty much keeping us afloat right now is that a lot of elective surgeries get cancelled. A lot of people don’t want to travel to have their elective surgery done,” Risinger said.
Another factor that halted the blood donations is the recent internal problems the New York Blood Center faced.
In January of 2025, the New York Blood Center experienced a data breach that exposed the personal health data of more than 193,000 people that was supposed to be protected.
This caused the NYBC to have to reach out to other centers to ask for blood donations from their reserves. The problem was there were no reserves.
“They weren’t collecting blood, so they were reaching out and getting anybody’s excess that they possibly could. So there was no leftover blood. There is no safety net right now,” Risinger said.
There are many uses of the blood that is donated for. It could be for a mother who had just given birth, someone who had jst been shot, or for cancer patients. Risinger talks about how the blood donated is so important to the community.
“It’s just so important to give because you never know whose life you could be saving,” Risinger said.
