Record snowfall causing ‘critically low’ blood supply

Bonfils Blood Center, the state's biggest network for blood donations, told the Daily Camera that their supply of blood is "critically low." The reason? Record snowfall forced the network to cancel or delay 14 blood drives.

On a regular basis, Bonfils aims to collect at least 3,000 donations a week, just to stay on par with demand and to account for the unexpected. Last week fell about 300 short of that goal.

That's problematic, Lambert said, because donated blood is only good for about 42 days. The need for donated blood platelets is even more urgent, as they don't typically last longer than five days.

People with blood typo O-negative are especially needed, said Bonfils.