Mass casualty events are increasing in US. Here’s a new way the Suncoast is helping.
With the COVID-19 pandemic having created a shortage of blood supplies across the country, the need for a safety net for hospitals after a mass casualty event has grown severe.
In response, SunCoast Blood Centers — the exclusive blood products provider to medical centers and hospitals in Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte and DeSoto counties — has joined the Blood Emergency Readiness Corps.
Also known as BERC, the cooperative of now 16 blood centers that operate in 29 states across the country are committing to collecting extra blood so they can be on-call to respond to a critical need brought on by mass shooting, natural disasters or other mass casualty events.
“Recent events like yesterday’s deadly mass shooting at the Michigan high school, along with the tragedy at the holiday parade in Wisconsin and that concert last month in Houston, highlight the need for a blood emergency response network,” said Steve Malave, director of community relations at SunCoast, at a news conference on Wednesday morning. “Today our region is going to be part of that solution and in fact the BERC network is activated today due to the situation that happened in Michigan.”
The cooperative works by having blood centers rotate being on-call every three weeks. On Wednesday, three blood centers participating in BERC were helping provide blood to hospitals caring for the victims from Tuesday’s shooting at a Michigan High School where four people were killed and seven injured.
SunCoast will be on-call for the first time starting Monday.
“Over last year and half with COVID, things have become more difficult for blood supply,” said John Hall, SunCoast chief operation officer.
Following the massive crowd surge at the Astroworld Festival in Houston last month that killed 10 people, there was a call put out to 15 to 20 blood centers because Houston hospitals were in need of 50 units of blood, Hall said. But they were only able to get 37 units.
After the Pulse shooting in Orlando, there was a need for 481 units of blood, Hall said.
“While the community is wonderful in their response and they do respond after a disaster or a mass shooting, there is a window period of a day to a day and a half where there is no blood supply available because of testing,” Hall said. “BERC is the fix for that. We are getting ahead of that.”
Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan shared a personal story during Wednesday morning’s press conference to help illustrate the need for the program. In 2005, during her tenure at St. Petersburg Police Department, her neighbor and her neighbor’s partner, both Tampa police officers, were shot in the line of duty.
“My friend, Mike Vigil, took a round in the chest underneath his vest and a round in the leg. For the first few days, we didn’t know whether he would live or die,” Bevan said. “I distinctly remember as I held vigil at Tampa General Hospital the doctor coming out and saying that to his knowledge at the time … Mike Vigil had received 160 units of blood.”
Since the human body only holds about 10 pints of blood, it was an incredible amount for her friend to have received, she explained, and more than anybody else that his doctor knew of.
“There was a massive blood drive that took place over the weekend, 4,600 people came out to donate,” Bevan said. “That right there reiterates the need to build up our supply during times of crisis. My challenge to everyone today is, let’s not wait for a crisis, during the month of December, let’s get 4,600 people out here to donate blood.”
Also at the press conference were Sarasota Interim Police Chief Rex Troche, Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Greg Bueno, Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office Major Jon Goetluck, Manatee Memorial Hospital CEO Tom McDougal, and Dr. Miguel Pelayo with Florida Cancer Specialists.
This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 5:25 PM.
