San Diego Blood Bank asks public to donate Type O blood

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - The San Diego Blood Bank said today it is experiencing a critical shortage of O positive and O negative blood and is asking people with type O blood to donate as soon as possible.

Type O positive is the most common blood type, and needed by many hospital patients, the blood bank said in a statement.

Type O negative is the universal blood type and can be given to any patient, and is often used in emergency rooms when there is no time to determine the blood type of the patient.

"Coming out of the holiday season, we typically see a decrease in donations of all types at this time...