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Less than a single day of Type-O blood on hand. That is the inventory figure the American Red Cross attached to its declaration of a national blood crisis.
The organization has offered no recovery timeline and named no cause. Why this blood type Type-O is the blood type hospitals draw on when they cannot wait for a compatibility test.
In trauma and emergency settings, where a patient's blood group may be unknown and minutes matter, it functions as the default.
Supply constraints on any blood type ripple through hospital systems, but a shortfall in Type-O hits the point of care where alternatives are fewest.
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