Blood donor demographics

I got a parental signature so I could give blood in high school when I was 17 years old. I gave once or twice a year through college and then pretty much stopped. I gave once or twice more after college, but it started to gross me out more and more. I wanted to give at the hospital while my dad was having surgery there. I was turned down because I'd stuck myself that morning with my cat's syringe. I had to wait a year before I could give again. That was maybe 3 years ago (this march).

You were turned down because you stuck yourself with your cat syringe? what? after it had been in the cat? or not...?

sigh.

I know you can't donate blood if you are gay. Actually, is not exactly like that, if you have had sex with another man in the last two years then you can't donate. Though in some parts, just being homosexual is enough reason to be turned down automatically.



Youth today is not only cynical but selfish and gullible. They believe anything they are told, and are always trying to think of ways to be compensated for their good deeds. This only worsens each generation; we're becoming a race of self-serving little angels.

But then again, that's only my opinion. This angers me quite a lot, since I am fifteen years old, and for all purposes, part of the group I've just picked apart.

I very recently gave at a blood drive hosted by the local high school
(Go Spartans!). I was well impressed by the numbers of kids who
volunteered to help out and by the number of older kids who donated.
Some sign of hope there.

That's nice to know George, at least there's still some hope. It's not a good sign being a pessimist at fifteen.

Well, it's almost inevitable - especially if you've a spark of idealism in
you, and I suspect you do.

December and January tend to be short supply months because of the holidays and people not getting out as much in the winter. Strangly enough July and August are also short supply months because the schools are out of session and many people are off on vacations.

I once went to a lecture about blood types and predisposition to certain diseases. It was quite interesting. Type O people tend to develop more cancers that require transfusion and Type As tend to develop more coronary disease and stomach ulcers requiring transfusions. Of course there are no absolutes but I can say having spent many, many years in a blood bank that most of our GI bleeders were type A, as were our bypass patients, and a large percentage of our blood system oncology patients were type O. There aren't as many type Bs or ABs to study but he did say that the prison population is weighted toward Bs in relation to the regular population.

Speaking as an A pos,

YIKES!

Me too, George. Which is why I jump all over my increasing bp.

Welcome, eryemil, and thanks for joining. It is not uncommon to be cynical about things when you are 15 or so. The trick is to not be lured in by the herd mentality of your peers. There is an old quote (I'll need help with attribution) that, paraphrased, goes something like this: When I was 15 my parents were really stupid; when I was 21 I was impressed with how smart they had become in only six years.

Back to the blood donation topic: someone mentioned the "fainting quarterback" notion but I can't find it. True story: my mother volunteered with the blood drives at UVA. Her job was to circulate amongst the donors as they lay on the couches and then, when they were finished and were cleared for departure by the nurses, to guide them over to a table and give them juice and cookies for a few minutes.
The star quarterback for UVA came in. He was, she said, a stunningly handsome 20-year old. He was Persian (Iranian) and his nickname, at least in the press, was The Student Prince. He had deep brown eyes which, unfortunately, became unfocussed when he stood up after donating. He looked at her, all 5'7" of her, said "Mother, mother" and collapsed on top of her. She always enjoyed telling the story of how she had once tackled an All-American football player.
Sorry for the long post (not really; I'm just saying that). I do tend to ramble. -rjb

I think you refer to me, and I am, or was a lab tech. I did have football player types get woozy on me, more than anyone else. I was aware it might happen as one entered the room.

Actually, I didn't have all that many folks ever faint on me, as my role was elsewhere in our labs. Was just paying attention to the lab situations.

Great story, rjb!

Why is blood such a repulsive sight to many, when humans are omnivores? I've seen many people faint at the sight of it. If we were meant to hunt our food, then wouldn't blood attract us like pheromones do?

Or maybe is a mechanism to keep us from attacking each other, not that it has worked.

What do you guys think of this?

For me, I guess it depends how I'm viewing it. If it's in a tube, or a medical bag it isn't bothersome, if a person is covered with it because of an accident then it's disturbing.

I guess it's relative.

well, isn't that fascinating! I think the stats on prison populations is fascinating. Have you read anything about eating for your blood type? I read a book on the subject a few years ago and they correlated type b to nomadic societies. Mayube nomads in a sedentary culture tend to get themselves into trouble....? Anyway, my dad is a type o who had vascular blockages and angioplasty to remedy it. And, according the the diet-by-type book, type o are the original hunters and gatherers, they can eat red meat to their hearts' content with no ill effect. My dad's doom, using that books theory, were fods associated with settle peoples such as cheese and eggs and bread and beer.....

I tend to not feel a lot of pressure to donate now because I am type a, I know all types are needed, but type a is pretty easy to find.

I'd really not like to hear about people figuring their fate from blood type; geez, where will you go next?

Just be, and be active.

Been a whole-blood donor for years but just gave my first apheresis (platelet) donation. Wasn't too bad except my arms cramped up a bit being held in one position for 90 minutes or so. Didn't help that they had me squeeze a rubber ball every 10-15 secs for the whole time.

You know, I think they could get a lot more donors of all types/ages if they somehow could track who the blood went to. I know if I could somehow check an Internet site, enter my blood donation tracking number and find out it went to a new-born baby girl in need of heart surgery, for example, I'd be much more motivated to give again as soon as possible. Wouldn't need a lot of info, just enough to make the donor really feel needed.

Hi slkshock and welcome to A2K! Thanks for joining in the conversation.

That's a novel idea, an interesting one - but let me throw this out just to stir the pot a bit....

A few years back there was an article in my newspaper about a convicted murderer who needed a heart transplant. It seems that people in prison jump to the top of the list for available organs because the state is responsible for their health care.

A LOT of people used this information as a reason to never be an organ donor.

What if you found out your blood went to.... say.... a drunk driver who smacked themselves up but killed some other people?

Thanks for the welcome, boomerang,

You're right in that too much info would be bad. You surely wouldn't want the donor able to track it down to the actual person. This would probably be a violation of the recipients privacy.

Therefore, in your two examples, you wouldn't know it was a convict nor a drunk driver. Instead, you'd just know it was, for example again, a 26-yr old male in need of a heart transplant and a 43-yr old male involved in an auto accident.

Now that does make sense, slkshock. It probably would help to give people a better sense of the need for blood donation.

I wonder how hard something like that would be to put into place. I know they have extreme tracking systems for blood....