To my knowledge—the line “up to three lives” is quoted because a blood sample can be separated into 3 parts? or 3 samples, to help with different problems.
What is not mentioned often is the shelf-life for blood products. 3 months on the shelf and that pint is in the medical-waste basket. AKA zero lives saved.
And further, if a surgery goes wrong and they need multiple transfusions to stabilise a person the lives saved goes into fractional numbers. (0.5, 0.33, 0.25...) But those numbers are not pretty.
Further; if someone requires multiple transfusions over their life; to save their life multiple times…
There are numbers less than 1 (0); there are numbers smaller than a whole; and (not actually a mistake made here) real representative numbers don’t often fall to a factor of 5 or 10. (5, 10, 50, 100, 1000).
Anyway if you are healthy and able to spare some blood then its probably a great thing to do.
Ike’s article linked does start to cover adverse effects of blood donation; I wonder if a study has been made into it.
The risk I see is that donating blood temporarily disables you by a small amount. I would call it akin to being a little tipsy; a little sleep deprived, or a little drowsy; or a little low in blood pressure (oh wait yea). Nothing bad happens by being a little drowsy, or a little sleep deprived. It really depends on the whole-case of your situation as to whether something bad happens. (See: swiss cheese model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model )
The important question to ask is—can you take it? If yes; then go right ahead. If you are already under pressure from the complexities of life in such a way that you might be adversely burdening yourself to donate blood; Your life is worth more (even for the simple reasoning that you can donate in the future when you are more up to it)
I’m not sure where you got the 3 month figure from; in America we store the blood for less than that, no more than 6 weeks. It is true that the value of your donation is dependent on your blood type, and you may find that your local organization asks you to change your donation type (platelets, plasma, whole blood) if you have a blood type that is less convenient. I do acknowledge that this question is much more relevant for those of us who are typo O-.
To my knowledge—the line “up to three lives” is quoted because a blood sample can be separated into 3 parts? or 3 samples, to help with different problems.
What is not mentioned often is the shelf-life for blood products. 3 months on the shelf and that pint is in the medical-waste basket. AKA zero lives saved.
And further, if a surgery goes wrong and they need multiple transfusions to stabilise a person the lives saved goes into fractional numbers. (0.5, 0.33, 0.25...) But those numbers are not pretty.
Further; if someone requires multiple transfusions over their life; to save their life multiple times…
There are numbers less than 1 (0); there are numbers smaller than a whole; and (not actually a mistake made here) real representative numbers don’t often fall to a factor of 5 or 10. (5, 10, 50, 100, 1000).
Anyway if you are healthy and able to spare some blood then its probably a great thing to do.
Ike’s article linked does start to cover adverse effects of blood donation; I wonder if a study has been made into it.
(http://www.ihn-org.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Side-effects-of-blood-donation-by-apheresis-by-Hans-Vrielink.pdf comes as a source from wikipedia on prevelance of adverse effects) (oh shite thats a lot more common than I expected.
The risk I see is that donating blood temporarily disables you by a small amount. I would call it akin to being a little tipsy; a little sleep deprived, or a little drowsy; or a little low in blood pressure (oh wait yea). Nothing bad happens by being a little drowsy, or a little sleep deprived. It really depends on the whole-case of your situation as to whether something bad happens. (See: swiss cheese model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model )
The important question to ask is—can you take it? If yes; then go right ahead. If you are already under pressure from the complexities of life in such a way that you might be adversely burdening yourself to donate blood; Your life is worth more (even for the simple reasoning that you can donate in the future when you are more up to it)
I’m not sure where you got the 3 month figure from; in America we store the blood for less than that, no more than 6 weeks. It is true that the value of your donation is dependent on your blood type, and you may find that your local organization asks you to change your donation type (platelets, plasma, whole blood) if you have a blood type that is less convenient. I do acknowledge that this question is much more relevant for those of us who are typo O-.
I don’t know. The number was in my head that a processed blood sample can last 3 months. entirely possible that it doesn’t.
″ After processing, red cells can be stored for up to 42 days; plasma is frozen and can be stored for up to 12 months;” http://www.donateblood.com.au/faq/about-blood/how-long-until-my-blood-used