Pepper Mill donates frequently. More often than I do, even. She was all set up to go and donate today, but she couldn’t because she was too short.
The apparatus , to my astonishment (and hers) requires a certain height, and she fell below it. They told her at the center that they should have asked her height when she made the appointment.
Sounds like they should have one of those “You Must Be THis Tall To Ride This Attraction” signs on it.
Height? I’ve heard weight was an issue but never height. Is this new? I wonder why, if she’s donated in the past, it’s a problem now.
Tell her thanks…I can’t give right now.
They have started asking height recently, I had noticed that. Their weight limit is you must be over 120 pounds. I don’t know what the height limit is, but at 5’3" I must be OK.
Maybe they’ve moved from a straight weight requirement to a height/weight ratio.
Maybe they should start taking less blood so smaller people can donate. They can call it the half pint special.
Nobody wants to be served a short pint.
Was she there for apheresis (“double red”)? I think I remember seeing a height and weight requirement for that, and it was a fairly small window for women. I coulda swore regular donation was just weight, though.
How tall is she, anyway?
I was told a long time ago that I was too light to donate blood and probably would never weigh enough to donate because I was so short. Then I got fat but I never donated because I didn’t see how 20 extra pounds of fat would supply me with more blood cells … and I was chicken. So now I feel better knowing that I still would have been turned away. Thanks.
Terrifel wins the thread.
The Red Cross requires a minimum weight of 110 pounds. The upper limit is the amount of weight the bed you lie on can hold. I guess if you lie down and the bed collapses you won’t be allowed to donate.
Those 20 lbs. actually do cause you to have more blood cells, because your total blood volume would be higher.
Why thank you. I was inspired by the thread title, which sounds vaguely like it could be the start of an incredibly maudlin country-western song.
That’s just silly, fat has very little blood supply. It’s not like muscle that runs around and does stuff, it just sits there being fat. Besides, I would have still been too short.
[sub]and chicken[/sub]
I don’ t understand the height restriction. I do know there are height/weight restrictions for the bone marrow registry because if you are selected as a donor, there are risks for the procedure due to going under anaesthesia. In that case, there is a maximum weight for each height category for both men and women.
What is it about the donation apparatus for whole blood that would have a height restriction?
Oh… I just found a link. There is a gizmo called ALYX which is an “automated red cell donation system” it allows you to donated two units with each visit, you get your plasma and platelets back (it sounds like a version of apheresis, but backwards). Women have to be 5’5" and at least 156 lbs to meet the total blood volume necessary for this type of donation.
But it looks like a petite donor can still make a regular whole blood donation as long as she meets the minimum weight. Mayhaps, the folks who scheduled your wife’s donation signed her up for the wrong machine.
Nah, they’ll still let you donate, they just have that added hassle of running your blood through one of these.
Adipose tissue is vascularized. Lots of teeny tiny blood vessels. Not only do I see it when cleaning chickens, I got it right on our exam last month. 
Fat also does stuff, it’s not just a storehouse for energy, it also makes and stores lots of hormones. All those hormones need lots of close blood supply to make their way to where they’re needed in the body.
More fat = more blood.