Blood donations in the U.S. have been dropping like a rock.

“We’ve now reached the lowest levels that we have seen in more than a decade,” said Rodney Wilson, who works for the Red Cross.

He says blood donation levels have been declining since the beginning of the pandemic.

"Typically, we try to keep five days supply of blood on hand, or more. And in recent weeks, we’ve had less than half a day's supply of certain blood types, and about a quarter of hospital’s blood requests are going unmet right now,” said Wilson.

That means there’s not enough blood for people who need transfusions, like people in car accidents or who have diseases like cancer or sickle cell anemia.

“Hospitals and doctors are having to make difficult decisions about how they use this very limited resource and which patients can receive a transfusion now and which patients will have to wait until more blood becomes available,” said Wilson.

The Red Cross is running a campaign to get blood donations up, including giving away free donuts to those who donate. But what if there was another way to get more blood? Or rather, make it.

“The golden ticket, the prize, the Nobel Prize-worthy event is to replicate human blood,” said Army Lt. Col. Matthew Armstrong.

He has spent years studying and researching blood at West Point.

Right now, Synthetic blood does not exist. Lt. Col. Armstrong says there are four challenges we have to overcome.

“It has to have the ability to carry oxygen. It has to be non-toxic. It has to have analogous to actual human blood. And it also has to have a half-life,” said Lt. Col. Armstrong.

In other words, any synthetic blood needs to bring oxygen to your cells. It can’t kill you or make you sick, it needs to be made up of similar materials and flow like regular blood, and it needs to remove itself from your body eventually.

It has to be blood, which is why creating it has been challenging.

But that doesn’t mean it's impossible. Lt. Col. Armstrong says with resources and commitment, he thinks it could be achieved as soon as five years from now, and the benefits could be tremendous.

“If you’re in the army, especially if you’re overseas, there’s a good chance you’re going to need blood over there. It would have changed a lot of outcomes had we been able to get blood faster,” said Lt. Col. Armstrong.

“We wish that we could recreate it so that we wouldn’t need to collect it from donors, but right now, that’s not an option,” said Wilson.

Until it is, the Red Cross encourages everyone who can donate.

KANSAS CITY, MO — A rare and innovative procedure at the Kansas City Zoo saved the life of one of their resident gorillas.

Zoo staff says it was truly a team effort and one that will go down in the record books. It was only the seventh time in the world that a gorilla-to-gorilla blood transfusion had been performed.

It all started in the spring when zoo staff noticed one of their two male gorillas, Curtis, wasn't acting like himself.

"They noticed he wasn't eating as well, and he was kind of hunched over every now and then and seemed like he might have some abdominal discomfort," veterinarian Kirk Suedmeyer said.

A basic exam indicated the great ape was anemic or losing blood, but zoo staff didn't know why.

The only way to tell for sure was to do a CT scan, but that's one diagnostic tool the zoo doesn't have. So, they had to anesthetize him, put him in the back of a van, and transport him to a human imaging facility more than 30 minutes away.

"Yes, we do go through the side door, and the room is not scheduled for a human patient. And it is thoroughly cleaned after we're there," Suedmeyer said.

Kansas City Zoo

The scan they performed there showed Curtis had a large hemorrhage, or blood clot, in his abdomen, along with another hemorrhage in his left kidney.

His situation was life-threatening, and Curtis' options were limited.

"You cannot transfuse human blood into a great ape and vice versa," Suedmeyer said. 'They have different blood groups than we do, and we do not have a gorilla blood bank."

But, the zoo did have a suitable match in his younger brother, Charlie. So, in an innovative and extremely rare procedure, they performed a gorilla-to-gorilla blood transfusion.

The entire procedure from start to finish took about 14 hours, and Curtis received 10 bags of blood — almost half a gallon.

Thankfully, between the blood transfusion and medications used to contain the hemorrhage, the procedure was a success, saving Curtis' life.

Curtis spent time in recovery, during which he was closely monitored, and 60 days later, he was ready to return to the gorilla exhibit, much to the apparent relief of Charlie.

"He definitely seemed like he missed him quite a bit," said Kansas City Zoo animal care manager Josh Murray. "That was the first time they've ever been a part, really, for an extended period. So, after 25 years, I think he was just feeling a bit lonely."

Murray added that in the wild, two adult male apes would not live in the same troop. But, Charlie and Curtis, both in their mid-20s, are brothers who've grown up together in captivity. They spent time at the Denver Zoo before being transferred to Kansas City.

Though they're glad to be back together, did Curtis show Charlie just how much he appreciated his brother's life-saving gift?

"I don't think there's a lot of hugging and thanking and 'thank you; I owe you my life.' I don't think that occurred, no," Suedmeyer said with a laugh.

Although Charlie and Curtis don't understand the significance of what the zoo was able to do, staff members certainly do. They say they're thrilled this turned out to be an animal tale with a happy ending.

This story was originally published by Caitlin Knute on Scripps station KSHB in Kansas City, Missouri.