Jackson Free Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A not-for-profit blood service in Mississippi says it's facing an urgent need for donations from people with all blood types.

Mississippi Blood Services is the only blood center headquartered in Mississippi servicing Mississippi patients. Its inventory is currently lower than it’s been in years, WLBT-TV reports. The deficit is causing some patients to have to wait to receive needed treatments.

Blood banks usually have a backlog of A positive and AB blood types on the shelves, but right now, Mississippi Blood Services said it’s struggling to get people who have Type A blood to donate.

“The scary thing is it could be a sickle cell patient or a cancer patient that’s told they have to wait, and they may have to spend the Christmas holiday in the hospital because they’ve been unable to get treatment to be able to go home,” Director of Donor Recruitment and Mobile Collections Merle Eldridge told the television station