Laboratory tech Erin Avery works on processing the blood donations received at the Memorial Blood Center in St Paul. — Photos: TNS
Just days before Quinyana Price rushed to the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) emergency room in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States, Dr Katherine “Betsy” Murray went to Memorial Blood Center in St Paul, also in Minnesota, to donate two units of red blood.
The two strangers then became linked when, by chance, Price was given Dr Murray’s same type O blood.
Each year in Minnesota, thousands of such exchanges occur, anonymously and unnoted.
The Minnesota Star Tribune followed one from start to finish to reveal how the complex process of blood donation and distribution works, and why agencies are clamouring for more donors.
The Memorial Blood Center’s Minnesota chapter provides 125,000 blood products annually for surgeries and treatments, combining with the Red Cross to supply the bulk of the US state’s hospitals.
The blood centre needs 2,000 donors per week to meet demand, given the number of patients with scheduled procedures or unexpected traumas.
Many medical emergencies cannot be addressed without donated blood.
“It’s the only solution,” said the non-profit organisation’s community relations manager Phil Losacker.
Price, 43, has received many transfusions because she has sickle cell disease, which turns round red blood cells into crescents that painfully restrict blood flow and disrupt bodily functions.
But she said she will always remember this transfusion because her abnormal blood had clogged and shut down her spleen.
Leaving the organ alone could have been fatal, she said, but removing it presented grave risks as well.
Price needed donor blood – a lot of it – to swap out her body’s supply and make surgery safer.
“It basically saved my life,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to have that surgery.”
High demand
The story began Nov 22 (2024) with Dr Murray, whose O-negative (O-) blood is special because it can be transfused into anyone.
The 51-year-old has given six gallons (about 48 pints or 22.7l) of blood over 53 donations.
She admits to having a guilty-pleasure love of the Lorna Doone cookies that are stocked in the snack basket at her donor site.
But mostly, she said, she feels a responsibility to donate, knowing that only 7% of people carry her needed blood type.
Dr Murray is a developmental-behavioural paediatrician at the University of Minnesota.
She only had paperwork scheduled on donation day, so she figured she could give blood at 8am and work from home.
Other donors bring laptops or work, but she enjoys sitting calmly without screens.
“You can do a lot of good without a lot of effort,” she said.
A tube from her right arm fed blood to an apheresis machine, which filtered her red blood cells into two packages.
Blood drives at businesses and community events used to fuel the blood centre’s collection efforts, but that changed after the Covid-19 pandemic when people didn’t return to their workplaces as much.
Appointments by volunteers such as Dr Murray now make up most donations, and they become more important over the holidays when donations decline 30% because people are travelling or busy.
HCMC is a trauma centre and one of the Memorial Blood Center’s top customers.
It needs whole, unfiltered blood to treat accident and injury victims, as well as condensed units of red blood like Dr Murray’s donation.
The hospital tries to keep 170 red blood units in stock, with as many as possible being type O because they can be given to more patients than types A, B or AB.
Blood types are also sorted as positive or negative by whether they contain an Rh protein that can trigger the immune system.
People with Rh-negative blood must receive the same kind.
In emergencies, doctors don’t always have time to check if patients have O or other blood types, said HCMC’s laboratory blood bank supervisor Jessica Peters.
“If you give them a different blood type and you are wrong, it can cause problems.”
Urgent need
Each unit of donated blood is carefully typed, tested for harmful viruses, weighed and stored at the right temperature to ensure they remain usable for the maximum 42 days after donation.
Supplies of O negative were getting low on Dec 14 (2025) when Price arrived at HCMC.
She had never undergone surgery, but has received numerous transfusions whenever her sickle cell disease triggers painful episodes.
Managing the disease is tough, she said, because she needs to stay fit.
But, she said, she can’t “hit it at the gym” like others without triggering pain.
Price works as a direct support professional who helps people with mental disabilities carry out daily tasks.
More strenuous jobs would be risky, triggering episodes that are like a lightning storm, she said.
“Can you imagine having pain like that? Pain that shoots across the body?” she said.
“That’s the best way I can break it down.”
Imaging scans at HCMC discovered that her spleen – the organ that filters a person’s blood and helps fight infections – had swollen and was basically dead, Price said.
HCMC general surgeon Dr Derek Lumbard said the condition is shockingly painful, even for sickle cell patients who are used to discomfort.
“This is a whole new level of pain,” he said, and it was hitting Price during her hospital stay.
Operating was essential, but Price’s blood disorder also made surgery risky.
Studies have found more postoperative infections, heart failure and other problems in sickle cell patients.
Price needed enough donor blood to dilute the concentration of sickle-shaped cells in her bloodstream to 30%.
Dr Lumbard said it was going to take 10 units of red blood.
Careful processing
Dr Murray’s “double red” donation of two red blood units had been checked and rechecked by the time of Price’s transfusion.
The blood centre’s product-testing lab verified the blood type and ensured it contained no viruses, such as HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) or West Nile.
The blood was weighed to ensure that each unit was around 450ml in volume, indicating that it contained enough blood cells to be clinically useful, then held in cold storage.
Dr Murray’s blood was boxed along with other units HCMC had requested on Nov 27 (2024).
Lab technicians at HCMC then recorded the temperature of each unit. If kept cold, red blood cells are usable for 42 days after donation.
A technician took a vial of Dr Murray’s blood to verify its type, placing it in a test tube with a liquid that would produce a chemical reaction if the blood wasn’t type O.
The cloudy mixture in the tube was the desired result; the blood had indeed been labelled correctly.
“In all my years, I have never seen it not to be right,” Peters said.
“But ... you have to have a healthy level of fear in blood banks so that you don’t get complacent.”
Dr Murray’s donation was moved to a separate cold storage shelf for blood that had cleared testing and was placed on the left-hand side.
It slid gradually to the right over the next few days as new units came in, a quick visual reminder of which units were getting closer to expiration.
Always a need
The call to HCMC’s lab came Dec 18 (2024).
Price would need 10 units of red blood from nine donors, including Dr Murray.
Additional testing showed that the donated blood lacked antigens that could trigger immune system reactions – it was ideal for Price.
She received the transfusion the next day to clear out her sickle cells.
The surgery days later was tricky and longer than planned.
Price’s spleen had grown so large that it had started to fuse to the abdominal wall.
But the procedure was successful, Dr Lumbard said, and no complications followed.
Price went home to heal. She hasn’t yet returned to work and she knows she can’t rush.
She is grateful for her donors, and future donors, given the likelihood that she will need transfusions to combat sickle cell episodes.
The disease is inherited and incurable.
“It really doesn’t matter what you are donating for. I appreciate whoever donates,” she said.
While 60% of the population is considered able to donate, only 3% does.
The limited pipeline results in occasional shortages, but mostly, hospitals report having blood when needed.
Dr Murray said she will continue to donate every six months as long as tests indicate that her blood cell levels have bounced back from the prior donation.
“I’ve been doing it for, I can’t even remember how long,” she said. – By Jeremy Olson/The Minnesota Star Tribune/Tribune News Service
Editor’s note: Similar to the US, Malaysia tends to experience a dip in blood donations and a rise in demand for blood over the holidays. The National Blood Bank has specifically called for donations of type A- and B- blood (in January 2025), but donors of all blood types are welcome. Click here to see where you can donate and help to save up to three lives. And check out StarHealth on Feb 2, 2025, for more on blood types.
