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Red Cross throws away donated blood

The American Red Cross has begun to destroy hundreds of thousands of pints of blood donated after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because the blood has outlasted its shelf life, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

Officials told the daily that some Red Cross donation sites will likely discard as many as one of every five donations.

The charitable group welcomed the outpouring of public largesse following the disaster, which it viewed as an opportunity replenish its sorely-depleted blood inventories.

But the Red Cross did not have the resources to freeze large amounts of excess blood, contrary to pronouncements made to the public, according to the Post.

The Red Cross, the largest blood supplier in the US, collects more than six million pints of blood annually and earns about 1.5 billion dollars -- or 60 percent of its revenue -- by selling donated red cells, platelets and plasma to hospitals.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Americans donated blood in record numbers, with blood inventories swelling from an average of three days' supply to 10 days' worth.

Some Red Cross officials estimated that at least 250,000 and perhaps as much as 400,000 extra pints of blood collected in the month after the attack will go to waste.

"It's inexcusable," Arthur Caplan, former chairman of the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability for the Health and Human Services Department told the daily.

"It could be very damaging and cost them an enormous amount of goodwill," he said.

The revelation is the latest black eye for the beleaguered charitable organization, which has been buffeted by criticism following recent revelations that only half of the US$550 million donated to a special fund to aide victims and survivors of the terrorist attacks had been distributed.

Red Cross President Bernadine Healy resigned last week as a result of the flap, after it emerged that the organization had planned to use a good deal of the money to upgrade its telecommunications, and take care of other infrastructural and administrative concerns.
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