On Monday, the day after long lines of blood donors waited as long as 11 hours to donate, Orlando's Oneblood reported that it took in 5,500 units of blood -- enough to serve the needs of the 53 people wounded in Sunday's massacre and still top off the bloodbank's supplies.
"The need is ever-present,” said Mike Rogers, vice president of Oneblood. “This has put the inventory back up, but you can never be prepared for what happened.”
Rogers said the 5,500 units dwarfs what they would normally get on a Sunday – about 1,500 units -- and had replenished inventory for the entire state, for now.
On Monday, a work day, they changed strategy. They took only 100 appointments and 50 walk-ins.
“We are not in that crisis situation anymore,” said Susan Forbes, vice president of media relations. “At the height, we were able to meet the needs of the hospitals and completely replenish our blood supply.”
Forbes said that overnight, all of the units were tested and transferred to the hospital. Most of the blood already used by the victims was donated on Wednesday and Thursday of last week.
So while it was slower than Sunday, Monday afternoon was still crazy. As the lobby buzzed with people going in and out of rooms to get their blood drawn.
Joseph Theodoredis reclined quietly on a table while blood eased out of his left arm.
“I am a regular donor and I know that my blood type, and I know my blood type, A/B positive is more in need,” said Theodoredis, who gives about once a quarter. He said he was not scheduled to donate for a while. “But these are special circumstances.”
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