As North Texas hosts one of the world’s largest sporting events, Carter BloodCare is planning for more than crowds and traffic. Ashley Claster talks with Andrea Sign about what it takes to keep the local blood supply ready during large-scale events, why hospitals depend on donors before emergencies happen, and why Texans are the missing piece in regional preparedness.
As North Texas welcomes a major international soccer event, Carter BloodCare is preparing for more than crowds, traffic and packed stadiums. In this episode of Blood Type: Texan, Ashley Claster talks with Andrea Sign about what large-scale events can mean for local healthcare systems, why the blood supply has to be ready before an emergency happens and how local donors help keep Texas hospitals prepared.
In this episode:
How Carter BloodCare plans for large-scale events and regional surge readiness
Why hospitals and emergency services need a stable blood supply during high-demand periods
How summer travel and school breaks affect blood donation
Why Type O blood and platelets are especially important during emergencies
Why donated blood must be collected, tested and processed before it can be used
How local donors help protect patients across North, Central and East Texas
Guest: Andrea Sign, Carter BloodCare’s Director of Marketing, Communications and Donor Relations
The need for blood does not pause during major events. To learn more about donating blood or to make an appointment, visit CarterBloodCare.org.
New episodes of Blood Type: Texan are released on the first Friday of every month.
Episode A2 Transcript: When DFW Hosts the World
Ashley: Welcome back to Carter BloodCare’s Blood Type: Texan, the podcast that pulls back the curtain on the systems, people and emergencies that keep lifesaving blood moving across Texas. I’m your host, Ashley Claster, and this is our second episode.
Right now, North Texas is part of one of the largest sporting events in the world: the 2026 FIFA World Cup. And while most people are thinking about teams, crowds and traffic, we’re looking at it from a different angle: what it takes to keep the local blood supply ready during an event of this size.
Today, we’re talking about how Carter BloodCare prepares for large-scale demand, why major events can impact healthcare systems, and why the blood supply still depends on local donors showing up before, during and after moments like this.
Joining me again is Andrea Sign, Carter BloodCare’s Director of Marketing, Communications and Donor Relations. Andrea, thanks for being back on Blood Type: Texan and helping us talk through what regional surge readiness looks like from a blood supply perspective.
Andrea: Thanks for having me back, Ashley.
Ashley: The soccer matches are underway, and North Texas is part of one of the largest sporting events in the world. We’re really lucky to have that in our area. But from a blood supply perspective, what does an event of this size mean for healthcare systems in general?
Andrea: We have to think about other things besides the big matches and all the fun activities. We have to look at it from a different perspective. We have to think about a temporary surge in the number of people relying on the public healthcare system. We have to think about the local hospitals and emergency services, as well as the potential for any large-scale emergencies.
Hospitals still have to care for everyday patient needs that require blood for transfusions, such as surgeries, cancer treatments and trauma care. But they also have to be prepared for the potential for a large-scale disaster. So they may see an increased demand, even if nothing large-scale happens. Maybe they see it because there are more accidents. Maybe they see weather-related issues because people are coming from other countries that may not be used to the heat that we have here in Texas, or just any other medical emergencies that somebody visiting here may have that are totally unexpected.
These visitors, when they’re packing their bags, are not packing a blood supply with them. So, if somebody needs a transfusion while they’re here, they’re relying on the blood that has been donated locally. That’s why we, as blood centers, and also the hospitals and emergency crews, have to be prepared and do a lot of planning ahead of time in order to do so.
Ashley: I love that visitors don’t bring a blood supply with them. That’s hard to wrap your head around, don’t you think?
Andrea: Yeah, mainly because we see on an everyday basis where we don’t have enough donors. People unfortunately don’t realize what we need for everyday care, let alone the surge in visitors and the potential that something like this could bring with it.
Ashley: So, when Carter BloodCare looks at a major event like this global soccer tournament, what kinds of questions come to mind first?
Andrea: The hardest part of planning is the what-ifs, the unknown variables. And keep in mind, we do this type of planning not just for large sporting events. Maybe it’s a large conference or convention that’s coming. Maybe there’s a large concert.
Most people didn’t realize when the eclipse was happening a couple of years ago in our Central Texas area, and they had a lot of visitors, we had to do a lot of planning because, again, the surge in visitors, but also the roads were so busy that we really had to plan how we were going to get blood. So, I want people to realize that it’s not just for this type of large-scale event.
When we are planning for these types of things, we’re going to ask ourselves: How many additional people are going to be in our region? Could hospitals experience higher demand? What does our blood inventory look like heading into that period? What does that season look like for us on a typical year?
We may look at donor recruitment efforts. Do we need to increase them? Are we doing enough to recruit donors?
We’re also going to look at practical and logistical considerations. How could our team members be impacted? How will traffic and event activity affect delivery, travel to hospitals, our blood drives or our donor centers? Will people be preoccupied and less likely to donate? Are we collecting the right products? Do we have enough Type O or platelets on the shelves? And do we have enough essential supplies?
A lot of our planning, though, revolves around maintaining stability. We know hospitals need blood regardless of what’s happening in the community, so we’re constantly evaluating how to keep donations steady as everyday routines change around us when these things come to town.
Ashley: What I just heard you say is all the things that we’re normally doing is what we had to do, just on a way bigger scale. So, how far in advance did planning begin for an event of this scale?
Andrea: Much earlier than I think most people probably expect. I remember having conversations well over a year ago. Basically, as soon as we found out that we were going to be hosting games in our area, the conversations started.
We are included in a lot of the regional conversations, so that kind of kicks off for us when the hospitals and emergency preparedness starts happening in the town. That’s kind of where we kick off what we’re doing.
We’re going to review the event timelines, and that kind of prepares us to say, “Okay, here’s what we need to do: X, Y and Z.” Depending on the timelines, we’re going to have conversations with hospitals. We’re going to have conversations with EMS or the helicopters, anybody that we have a relationship with that may need blood.
The timing of this World Cup happening in the summer is something that we really had to start the conversation sooner than probably what we would have, because it’s already a challenging time for the blood supply. Schools are out, people are on vacation, routines are changing.
So, we’re not just planning for a few matches. We’re planning for an extended period when the region is busier than normal and the blood supply is already challenged and taxed by lower donor turnout.
Ashley: Well, and 25% of our blood supply comes from high school donors who, like you said, are now out of school on vacation. So, we always have tough summers. Now we’re adding this huge, huge international event. Did that worry you at all?
Andrea: Yeah, it did, because every day is a challenge in itself, right? Again, going back to the fact that we just don’t have enough donors as it is, and we’re constantly needing our 1,600 donors a day just to meet everyday demand, let alone what we need for this. So, yeah, I was concerned.
Ashley: We heard from a few hospitals that they were ramping up efforts way before. I even heard a hospital was opening up an extra floor for potential emergencies, which means, to supply those emergencies, they need blood. That’s where we come in.
So, how does Carter BloodCare and local hospitals coordinate with each other to keep the region ready during high-demand periods like this?
Andrea: The good news is we’re not starting from scratch. We work with hospitals every single day, so we already have those communications happening. Those are regular meetings.
But we had to understand what the hospitals were planning because we have to meet their needs. We had to understand what they were expecting and make sure that we were going to be able to meet their requirements, where they would feel comfortable helping anybody who came through the door.
So, we’re constantly monitoring demand with them, looking at inventory levels and projecting patient needs. Again, we’re staying in regular communication with our transfusion services at the hospitals, the trauma centers and the emergency departments, just to understand what they’re seeing and what they may need.
Planning for something like this does involve inventory targets. They’re going to increase what they have on their shelf for the unexpected, and we need contingency plans with them. We need to have communication plans and processes.
What if, for some reason, there’s a high volume of people and cell phones aren’t working, or there are other challenges? We’ve got to always make sure that we have alternative ways to communicate with each other.
At the end of the day, though, everyone is really working toward the same goal, and that is to make sure that patients are going to have access to lifesaving blood whenever and wherever it’s needed.
Ashley: So, when we’re planning with those hospitals, these are estimates. Nobody really knows what’s going to happen. So before, during and after, we really have to ask people to step up and help us.
What kinds of factors matter most when a region is hosting millions of additional visitors, not just for this tournament, but any kind of high-surge situation?
Andrea: There are a lot of moving parts. Of course, again, we do think about the possibility of increased demand on the hospitals and emergency services.
But we consider factors like transportation. So, you have more people. You have people who maybe are not used to driving on the side of the road that we’re used to driving on, right? And that’s a challenge. You could see an increase in accidents for various reasons.
Traffic patterns could change. We kind of automatically know, “Oh, this area is normally congested, and we know the times of day,” but when you have that many people here, it’s going to change those traffic patterns. So, we have to think about that from a delivery perspective or maybe from a pickup perspective, making sure that our staff is getting out to these blood drives or our donor centers to pick up blood in a timely manner and get it back here for processing.
We have to plan for that because they could see higher traffic, and it could take them longer to get back and forth.
I mentioned the weather earlier. Weather plays a part both in health, again, for donors visiting Texas for the very first time and having no clue the heat they’re about to experience, but also it’s been raining a lot here lately, and we’ve had some significant storms. So, you have to take that into consideration because there are still tornadoes happening this time of year or severe storms of some sort.
There’s a lot that we have to consider. Again, summer, just understanding that it is summer and people are traveling, they’re on vacation, and blood donation is not top of mind. So, we have to be able to compensate for all of that and make sure that we are still collecting the blood that’s needed.
Ashley: That’s really interesting to think about the factors of people coming in from other countries, like you said, not driving on one side of the road or never experiencing a tornado. They’re not going to know. They might not know what to do or to get into a shelter. So, they’re not used to any of the same kind of weather we are.
That’s just a little thing that you have to prepare for. So, it’s really a bunch of tiny things that you have to think of all at once. Is that overwhelming?
Andrea: It is. I mean, because then it’s all what-ifs. It’s all variables. And for every variable, I can come up with a million other ones that could potentially impact it.
So, it’s hard to plan because you can’t build up the blood supply to say, “Oh, we’re going to build up a year’s worth,” because there’s a shelf life, and blood expires. So, you can only have so much ready because we want to be good stewards of the blood supply. We do not want anything to expire if we don’t have to, but yet you need enough for those just-in-cases.
Ashley: It’s such a delicate balance. So, what would be the biggest concern during a major event like this if the blood supply were already strained, which we know right now it is? We need O donors. It is strained. That’s not a hypothetical question.
Andrea: No, I was going to say there’s no if in this scenario because it really is. We were hoping in May that we would build a blood supply that we were comfortable with going into this, and we didn’t quite get there for various reasons. Again, May is one of those very busy months for people, and blood donation just isn’t top of mind.
So, we’re in this scenario right now where our positive, our O negative, our red cells, some of them are at less than a one-day supply. And that’s a scary place to be.
Everybody here at Carter BloodCare, every day that we come into work, we are fighting to get every donation that we possibly can get.
It’s hard. I look at my teams, and Ashley, you can even say, this morning I looked at all of y’all and said, “Have we done everything that we possibly could do? And if you were needing a blood transfusion yourself, or whoever your most loved person is in your life needed one, could you look at yourself and say, ‘I’ve done everything I could to get the word out and to encourage donors to donate?’”
That is what we are trying to do, because it takes one disaster, one large-scale thing, just to totally take your entire blood supply, especially your O’s and your platelets.
Ashley: Man, when you just said one-day supply of those critical blood types with all those visitors here, I literally have chills right now because that’s one day for the entire Metroplex, right? Like DFW, all the hospitals.
Andrea: Yes. Less than a one-day supply of O positive and O negative and B negative.
Ashley: So, if you’re listening right now and you have Type O blood, please, please, please come donate to Carter BloodCare. Or if you know anybody, ask them. Especially right now, we would always love donors, but during this soccer event, we need your help.
Okay, so we’ve already talked about how Carter BloodCare prepares, how hospitals prepare and how we prepare together. While this global soccer tournament is happening in North Texas, what role do local blood donors play in keeping the hospitals ready? Because I don’t think the word is out there enough that they realize that this is on them, right? This is our community’s responsibility to build the blood supply up.
Andrea: They play a vital role. Ultimately, they play the most important role.
I wish I could write the script for each and every one of them, but I can’t. So, all we can do is try to get that word out, to let them know how important they truly are.
Every unit of blood used in our hospitals starts with someone in the community choosing to donate, and whether the person they donate for is a lifelong Texan or somebody visiting from another country, the blood they receive is from a local donor.
Donors are the ones who help ensure the blood is available before an emergency occurs, not after. It is the blood on the shelf that saves lives.
This big event, the World Cup that’s happening right now, does shine a spotlight on preparedness, but the reality is that hospitals need blood every single day. These patients who are dependent, they can’t wait for a crisis appeal. We can’t go out to the media every day on appeal.
In the last episode, I mentioned that I wish everybody would realize that these patients are having their own mini crisis, their own mini emergency. If you would think of our emails and our calls and our text messages as that true media critical appeal for those individual patients, and react the same way when you see some big critical media appeal, and show up. Show up for that person.
A strong blood supply is built through people constantly showing up to donate. We are incredibly grateful for the donors who do make that possible.
Ashley: On that note, with our consistent donors, we need consistent donors all the time, not just when there’s a crisis. I think after any big crisis you see on the news, people line up to donate blood. But the reality is that’s not going to help in a big situation, right? It’s the blood that was donated before that.
Andrea: It’ll help replenish. Lots of times, what you’ll see, and people sometimes will get upset about, is that we have some major event happen. And you’re right, people do show up, and we are grateful for that.
But because blood has a short shelf life, we only need so much of it at a time. So, we may ask you, “Hey, can you please wait and donate in a week or in a couple of days?” Because yes, we need to replenish the blood supply, but also, there are going to be patients during their recovery who need transfusions, not just today, not just next week, but maybe even a month from now, two months from now.
It’s important that we have the blood on the shelf, and then when something does happen, we replenish. But we replenish at a pace that uses the blood and doesn’t let it expire.
Ashley: How long until blood expires?
Andrea: It depends on the product. So, a red cell product is going to be good for 42 days, and then platelets are going to be good for about seven days after they’re donated.
Ashley: So, if you’re listening to this during the global soccer event, if you donate now, that’s going to carry us through the rest of the tournament.
Andrea: Yes, it will.
Ashley: And after somebody donates blood, it doesn’t just appear on the shelf. There are several steps in between: the collection, testing, all this. It doesn’t just automatically get there. So, this is truly a needing-to-plan-ahead effort, correct?
Andrea: Oh, yes. If you’re receiving blood, you want to make sure that it’s a safe product. We want to make sure it’s a safe product. So, we do have to follow our processes, and they are there for a reason: to make sure that the blood supply is safe. We want to make sure that we allow that time to do the proper steps and process to get the blood on the shelf.
Ashley: And that’s why it’s so important to donate before that crisis instead of after, because that blood is going to save that person in that crisis. It was already donated.
Lastly, as North Texas continues hosting this influx of visitors and international visitors as well, what gives you confidence personally that the region is ready from a blood supply standpoint?
Andrea: Earlier, you asked if I had any concern, right? And I did. When you first hear of the number of people that were predicted to be here in our region, but then once I really started thinking about it, I was like, “Wait, we’ve got this.”
I have confidence in the strength of the partnerships that we have throughout North, Central and East Texas. We have experienced hospitals and emergency services, public health partners, and we work together every day, not just during these special circumstances. So, those relationships, those partnerships that we already have, and I know how strong they are, that really made me more at ease.
Carter BloodCare already has the infrastructure. We have the expertise that’s needed for collecting and testing and processing and distributing blood. So, I wasn’t concerned there.
And the fact that we have been planning and communicating for over a year and continuing to monitor conditions closely every day.
But more than anything, my confidence comes from our donor community because I know how Texans are. Time and time again, our North Texas community, as well as our East and Central Texas communities, step up when patients need them. They make donating blood a priority when they know that it’s truly needed.
So, I say thanks to them for giving me that peace and that confidence. But for anybody out there who is thinking about it, we really could use you. Think about that patient who needs your type and is having their own mini crisis, their own mini emergency, and show up.
Ashley: If you ever wanted to think about donating blood, now is the time. Because we have so many visitors here, there’s such a higher chance that blood is going to be needed, and we have to be prepared for that.
Andrea: I even say take the high volume of people out of it. It’s summer. We need donors no matter what. With the high schools being out, there goes 25% of our blood supply. So, we need the general community to step up just to fill that loss from those high schools being out for summer.
People are traveling. They’re going on vacation. They’re not here locally to donate. So, we need other people to step up and to donate while they’re on vacation.
Ashley: Can visitors donate blood, too?
Andrea: Most should be able to. Definitely, you’ve got to check your eligibility. There are going to be certain travel and different things like that that may keep somebody from donating. But I would say at least try. Go show up. Go try and see if you’re eligible to donate.
Ashley: Once you have the needle in your arm, it only takes 10 minutes. So, 10 minutes to help our area be prepared for anything, honestly, is worth it, I think. Do you agree?
Andrea: Yeah. I think, again, it just goes back to that patient. If you can envision that child, that mother during childbirth, that cancer patient, that car accident victim, any of those, if you can picture any of those people, I would say it’s worth it.
Ashley: So, what I’ve been hearing you say this whole time is that we have all of the infrastructure, we have all of the relationships with hospitals, we have the staff. We are ready. Now, it’s just on Texans, on donors.
We started planning well in advance. This is not a last-minute scramble. But I feel like the last piece we need is for those donors to come through. Is that kind of where your head’s at?
Andrea: Yeah. I mean, I feel like we as an organization are ready, hospitals are ready, transportation is ready. The missing piece is the donors.
I know that life is busy, real busy. I myself am a mom of two girls, both in college and playing sports. So, I get how busy life can be.
But we can’t do this without people, without Texans, without donors. So, if you can find it in your schedule, don’t pencil it in. Put it in there with a Sharpie and schedule it. Make that time just like you do for your haircut or different things. Make it a priority and make sure that blood supply is there, because it may not be a stranger who needs it. It could be you yourself who needs it. It could be a parent. It could be a spouse. It could be your best friend or even your child.
We prepare for different things, right? We always want to make sure that when storms are coming, we do that preparedness. We make sure that we have the food in the house, or that our blinds are closed and our windows are locked up and the doors are locked, and we’re away from any glass. You don’t know for sure whether that storm is going to hit your house, but you still prepare.
So, if you think about the need for blood as a storm—
Ashley: We boarded up the windows.
Andrea: Yeah. So, think of that donation as that preparedness for that own personal storm somebody is having.
We can’t do it without people. We can’t do it without donations, and people’s lives are dependent upon that.
Ashley: Andrea, thanks for helping us look at the World Cup from our perspective. Most people probably never think about the local blood supply. For everyone listening while gameplay is still underway, this is a good reminder that the need for blood does not pause during major events. Hospitals still depend on donors right here in our community every day.
That’s exactly where we’re going next on Blood Type: Texan: why the blood supply ultimately depends on people. That’ll be our next episode. New episodes come out on the first Friday of every month.
To learn more about donating blood or to make an appointment, visit CarterBloodCare.org. I’m Ashley Claster. Thanks for listening to Carter BloodCare’s Blood Type: Texan. We’ll see you next time.