I’m a mild hemophiliac, and I want to give my blood to the local blood bank. Will they accept it?
Do they take troll blood? 
C’mon, Lumpy, we got standards in GQ. I just haven’t found 'em yet. Maybe someone’s sat on 'em.
Seriously, I don’t know. They might take your blood and make plasma out of it by removing all the cells. Blood plasma can save lives. Or they might take your blood and then give platelets along with it. The best way to find this out is to ask your local blood bank. And if you can give, please do. We need that stuff, all we can get.
I was under the impression that hemophilia is a condition where blood does not clot. There was a guy in my HS who had this and had to quit wrestling because his case was so severe, a small bruise could mean death as it would never congeal.
What I don’t know is if blood taken from a hemophiliac is tainted itself.
If it is, then nobody would want blood that wouldn’t clot in them. If it’s not (or if the “weak” blood could mix in just nicely with normal blood and be fine), then the only concern, I imagine, would be that they can’t stop YOU from bleeding to death when theuy extract the blood from you.
How mild a case is that?
Could a real doctor or nurse come along and clean up all of the WAG’s in this post?!?
Yer pal,
Satan
*TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Six months, four days, 3 hours, 2 minutes and 13 seconds.
7485 cigarettes not smoked, saving $935.63.
Extra time with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 4 days, 23 hours, 45 minutes.
I slept with a moderator!*
Hemophilia is defined as not having enough platelets in the blood. There’s nothing wrong with the blood itself - it’s just missing platelets. So like Derleth said, you’d think they could use it with added platelets. Heck, even if you just mixed in a little hemophiliac blood with normal blood, platelet concentration probably wouldn’t go down all that much. Even if you used enough to make a difference, it would only be a temporary drop until the body made more platelets. I don’t see any reason not to use it.
But, of course, the government is involved here, so who knows what the rules are.
The Red Cross states its restrictions on this page
http://www.redcross.org/800giveblood/restrictions.html
There is no restriction against hemophiliacs donating per se, but there are a lot of restrictions about many conditions which are handled on a case-by-case basis.
Don’t you people give blood? Sheesh…
I donated my most recent unit about 14 days ago, and the Canadian Blood service will not accept blood from a hemophiliac. In fact, they have a whole list of people who they won’t take blood from, including people who have recently been pierced, tattooed, have ever had male-male sex, or if you have the sniffles on donating day.
One of the key things they get from blood is platelets (which is obviously lacking in you), and they only last for 4 or 5 days.
But if you’re a hemophiliac you don’t want to be giving blood, even if you just have a mild case. You have a fairly high risk of developing a hematoma, which is just a fancy way of saying that the hole they poke in your circulatory system won’t close, and you’ll get a very large lump of pooled blood under your skin.
This can happen even if you’re just giving a small amount of blood-- say for an HIV test. It’s no fun (according to several mild hemophiliacs I know), and the only way to avoid it is to clamp down on that bandage for upwards of 30 minutes.
Not to sound rude, but you could always call your local blood bank office and ask them.
So not to be picky – or perhaps exactly for that reason – I don’t think hemophilia is defined as “not having enough platelets in the blood,” strictly speaking.
Hemophilia in its various forms involves problems with two clotting factors, VIII and IX, which are part of the coagulation cascade but (from everything I’ve been able to find) do not necessarily translate to meaning you don’t have enough platelets. If the entire coagulation cascade doesn’t occur properly, your blood won’t clot the way it should, and you’re at risk.
Sources:
http://www.graylab.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd?query=hemophilia&action=Search+OMD
At least you don’t have bloody crap. Oof.
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A few years ago, while in college, I was seriously broke and decided to sell some blood. They ran the urine test on me, and told me I had been rejected because I had too much protein in my urine. They said to check back in a few days. I was shot down the second time… then a third… then a fourth, and then I gave up. “Shit,” I thought to myself, “I should bottle my piss and sell it to bodybuilders as a protein drink.” Anybody have any idea what my problem was? My diet consisted mainly of beer, caffeine, speed, nicotene, hot sauce, and salt.
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I was routinely tested for protein the my urine when I was pregnant. I think the test is normally performed to check for kidney disease. With a diet like the one you list, it wouldn’t be surprising if your kidneys were feeling a bit of a strain.
The main reason that they don’t accept blood from hemophiliacs is not the hemophilia per se, but the fact that hemophiliacs are a high-risk group for AIDS. This is not to imply, of course, that all hemophiliacs are HIV positive, but there’s enough of them that the Red Cross doesn’t consider it an acceptable risk.
Of couse, hemophiliacs generally also need all the blood their body can produce in the first place, as Barbarian mentioned.
mild hemophilia…
As in: I will not die from a bruise, a poke, or anything (well, not anything…)
I have had to take DDAVP (hemophilia medicine) only twice in my life: car accident and broken arm, that’s how mild it is.
And I have never actually RECEIVED any blood, so I’m not a risk for whatever disease have-you.
Of course not all hemophiliacs are at a higher risk, but it’s a lot easier for the Red Cross to just exclude them all. It may not be fair, but it’s reasonable. In your particular case, I suspect that there wouldn’t be any real problems with you donating, but that the Red Cross wouldn’t take your blood, anyway.
jbird how were you diagnosed? It sounds like you have von willebrands disease, which is in the hemophilia family but is not hemophilia. DDAVP is a drug that has been found to be useful in releasing Factor VIII and Von Willebrands Factor in certain patients whose bodies produce the factors but do not release them into their blood.
If your blood is deficient in these factors without the use of DDAVP, your local blood bank will not want your blood, since it is deficient. But as everyone else has stated…ASK the blood bank!
DDAVP is aindicated for Hemophilia A (Factor VIII deficiency) and von Willebrand disease. Hemophilia B is factor IX deficiency (Christmas disease). Interestingly, 10% of Ashkenazi Jews have factor XI deficiency, which is characterized by easy bruising and prolonged bleeding after dental procedures and other minor surgery.
The platelets are not affected in these diseases – usually the platelet count is normal. The RBCs are also normal. All of these are plasma/vascular factors in the intrinsic pathway of clotting.
I’m not 100% certain that the blood bank won’t take your blood, but I’d be willing to bet two bucks that they won’t.
There are a few reasons why the blood bank probably won’t want to take your blood.
-They don’t want to stick a hemophiliac, with risk of prolonged bleeding and easy bruising.
-They cannot use the plasma and even packed cells as this retains some plasma.
-They are wary of blood-borne diseases and antibodies to minor blood group antigens. This usually only happens if you have had a lot of transfusions (Hemophiliacs generally get loads of fresh frozen plasma to supplement their blood, although many of the factors can now be made using recombinant DNA technology).
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*Originally posted by Wilbo523 *
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I’m assuming I was diagnosed when I was born because it runs in the family.
Factor 8… another familiar word… Think I got some of that in the hospital when I broke my arm… But I wasn’t really paying attention, because of the pain and all.
Here’s what I know: my blood is deficient in platelets. But not HIGHLY deficient… I used to play hockey for god’s sake. I don’t bleed profusely, just slightly above normal.
I guess I COULD call Canadian Blood Services… But where’s the fun in that?