# are blood donations immediately after a crisis helpful?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blood-donations-immediately-after-a-crisis-helpful/757340>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 14, 2016, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blood-donations-immediately-after-a-crisis-helpful/757340 "2016-06-14T12:23:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blood-donations-immediately-after-a-crisis-helpful/757340/21 "2016-06-14T23:14:46Z")

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As noted, blood can be transported.

It was reported on the Chicago TV news that blood banks in our area sent needed blood and blood products to Orlando, so it’s probably not out of the question that if Orlando winds up with an oversupply they might send some back here. Rinse and repeat for multiple locations.

I’m guessing a lot of blood gets transported around as needed, whether there’s a crisis or not.

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**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blood-donations-immediately-after-a-crisis-helpful/757340/22 "2016-06-14T23:43:24Z")

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Blood is interesting stuff. As noted above, it’s got a finite shelf life, and there’s really more to it than just A, B, AB, O negative and positive. Life would be simpler for hospitals if there were just those eight types, but the reality is that everyone will also have a collection of antibodies on their blood cells, which is why they cross-match the recipient to the donated blood whenever possible.

My husband had AB-, which is rare enough to begin with, but his particular set of antibodies meant that one of the times he needed a transfusion, the blood had to be shipped in from about three hours away.

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**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-blood-donations-immediately-after-a-crisis-helpful/757340/23 "2016-06-15T01:27:55Z")

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> [@rocking\_chair](#):
>
> according to this article, one person used 90 units of blood.
> 
> [http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/13/health/orlando-trauma-surgeons/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/13/health/orlando-trauma-surgeons/index.html)

Crazy. That’s equivalent to roughly ten times volume of blood a person has.

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