As a regular (14 gallons, though I can’t do it as often as I used to) blood donor to the Red Cross, I get emails reminding me to give, with the times and locations of blood drives in my area. I usually delete them unless I’m available and planning to donate soon, so I don’t read them thoroughly. Today, though, something caught my eye.
“Nationwide, someone needs a unit of blood every 2 to 3 seconds and most of us will need blood in our lifetime.”
I’m not concerned with the first claim, but the second? “Most?” I did a quick search and found statistics ranging everywhere from “1 in 7” to “71%.”
I really don’t know how they’re qualifying this. Do people who don’t accept transfusions for religious reasons, but whom doctors think “need” them, count? What about people who need blood, but for whom no blood is available?
71%? Absolute bullshit. 15%? Just regular bullshit. About 5% seems right to me. I work in the blood bank of a hospital that serves a community of about 100,000. And we go through about 25 units a day. Including units of packed red cells, units of plasma, and units of platelets.
Most of these go to two categories of patient. 1). Chronic cases. People with leukemia, people on some serious chemotherapy, people with some serious auto-immune disorder. 2). People at the end stages of life. (old ladies in ICU who are being bled dry by the constant barrage of phelobotomists). Also worth mentioning are the massive trauma patients who sometimes need 30 or so units in an hour.
When the Red Cross says “blood products”… that is a bit misleading. Lots of drugs are made from plasma. Clotting factors used by haemophiliacs are made from plasma. Most of this comes from the seedy places that pay people to donate. Also, Rhogam, the drug that is given to Rh negative pregnant ladies. Each needs at least two vials of the stuff per pregnancy. It is made from the plasma of people who live around Buffalo New York. They are paid. Lots of other drugs as well.
Do I donate? No. 1). The blood is not given to the patients. About $1000 a unit when all charges are compiled. 2). The majority who get blood really do not need it. Doctors like to order transfusions. It makes them feel like Hawkeye from MASH. 3). (Most important). I am horribly scared of needles.
That said there really is a need for platelets (most precious) , AB plasma, and O negative blood. All those who supply these are blessed.
As for people who need blood a do not get it…the uninsured. And people who refuse for religious reasons…a bit like atheists in fox holes. Not many. But I do have fond memories of a particular Jehovah’s Witness lady. She kept refusing and the doctors kept telling he she was sure to die. But when her hematocrit dropped below 10%…a miracle, her bone marrow suddenly kicked back to life. A few weeks later she was fine. Too stubborn to die.
Still, that’s 9,000 units a year, enough to give one out of every 11 people served by your blood bank a unit. Of course, one is a minimum, so the average is going to have to be higher than that, but if even 1% a year need blood products that’s enough to say that 50% will need some in their lifetime. They’re doing a lot of stuff now with platelet rich plasma, but as far as I know all that is autologous and not dependant on donor blood, but the Red Cross might still add that in as people needing blood products.
Well, I am O negative. And I also have no anti-CMV antibodies. They tell me my blood goes straight to babies, burn victims, and transplant patients. So for decades I’ve been basking in self-righteousness and free cookies. How much of that is bullshit?
Is blood donated to the Red Cross given freely to patients? Do donators ever get paid?
$1000 a unit - Really?
My understanding is that saline solution works pretty well to keep the heart pumping and the plumbing pressure up. I regularly watch a fly-on-the wall documentary (makes me an expert) where I hardly ever hear the trauma team calling for blood.
ED at KIngs College Hospital is the place to go if you ever get knocked down by a bus in London. Those guys are ace.
CMV negative, Rh negative, O blood…dead useful. What is used for all babies, and all O Neg patients who are immuno-compromised.
Can get away with giving an Rh positive blood to a negative person in an emergency. And the chances of getting CMV from any modern blood product are remote. But still, especially if going into a baby, one does not want to mess around.
Most blood centers charge the hospitals $250 or so for a unit of packed red cells. The hospitals then mark it up a good bit, and charge a bunch to hook it up to the patient.
Can not pay people to donate in the US. The thinking is that people willing to sell their blood for money are much more like to have some nasty infectious disease. Crackheads and homeless.
Saline works great to a point, but if there is not enough hemoglobin in the blood, the body ups the blood pressure and heartbeats to compensate, and after awhile it really starts to suck. Most people can get by fine after loosing more than half of their blood.
About a third of trauma patients need blood products. But, I live in an area where people are fond of shooting and stabbing each other. So perhaps less in other areas.
I’ll keep the hospital in London in mind. Have the bad American habit of only looking left when I cross a street… getting squished by bus a likely scenario…
No, but you can pay for plasma. My mom used to work in a plasma center run by Baxter Travenol. And yes, you do get a lot of pretty questionable donors in such places.