Thanks to blood that’s donated and available at blood banks, about 4.5 million lives are saved each year.
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About 40,000 Americans each day perform a life-saving act...simply by donating blood.
Blood is the stuff of life, and it’s needed for life-threatening situations about once every three seconds–for the stabbing victim in the emergency room, the mother having an emergency C-section birth, the elderly male undergoing hip replacement surgery, the cancer patient whose body is unable to make red blood cells. Because of blood that’s available at blood banks, about 4.5 million lives are saved each year.
But the blood donated barely meets the needs of the health care system, and, according to a 1999 report by the National Blood Data Resources Center, nine percent of hospitals reported at least one day during the year when the shortage of blood was serious enough to require postponing or canceling scheduled surgery.
Considering the good that it offers, the act of donating blood is relatively simple and completely safe. It’s impossible to get any virus or illness through giving blood. A healthy person can give whole blood once every 56 days or can donate platelets once every 48 hours, up to 48 times a year.
If you haven’t donated blood recently, it may be time to ask yourself why. The only requirement is that you be in good health, weigh at least 110 pounds and be over the age of 17. The whole process takes about an hour, much of which is consumed by a screening questionnaire and a physical examination designed to protect your safety and that of the blood supply.
About 40 percent of the population is restricted from giving blood–either temporarily or permanently–for various reasons that might increase the risk of a blood-borne illness. Although Americans may worry about getting HIV/AIDS through a blood transfusion, that risk is minuscule–about the same as being hit by lightning.
In addition to the permanent exclusion of those with hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, persons who have had a heart attack, heart surgery, cancer treatment or a blood transfusion are asked to wait as are those taking certain medications. Also excluded are persons who have had a tattoo in the past 12 months and those who spent three months or more cumulative time in the United Kingdom from 1986 to 1990–because of the risk of “mad cow” disease.
If you’re not feeling well the day of the blood donation or if you’ve taken antibiotics recently, you should not give blood. About eight percent of potential donors–nearly all of them menstruating women–are turned away because their red blood cell count is temporarily low.
The actual drawing of blood takes only 10 to 15 minutes. Those who relax and look away will barely notice what is taking place once the needle is inserted.
Afterward, it’s normal to feel a little dizzy and nauseous for a short time and have some redness, pain and bruising where the needle was inserted. Drinking plenty of water both before and after giving blood can ease the dizziness and prevent fainting. You should avoid any heavy physical activity for four or five hours.
Because of the fear of blood-borne diseases, many persons donate their own blood ahead of time for use during a surgical procedure.
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Because of the fear of AIDS that surfaced in the 1980s, many individuals turned to autologous blood donation–donating their own blood ahead of time for use during a surgical procedure. Autologous blood accounts for about five percent of all transfusions in the United States.
Starting three to four weeks before a surgical procedure, an individual can donate a unit of blood one to six times to be used later for transfusions. A person must, of course, be healthy enough to donate blood, with a red blood cell count high enough to assure that oxygen can be delivered to cells of the body.
Most problems occur not because of an impurity in the blood supply but rather because the wrong blood is administered.
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Autologous donation is the safest option in terms of avoiding HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. If you don’t have a blood-borne disease before surgery, you won’t afterward either–unless your blood is mixed up with someone else’s. Unfortunately, according to one survey, one percent of autologous blood was transfused to the wrong person. It’s the most common reason for a problem following the transfusion of blood.
One way to avoid such mistakes is through the use of a bar code system. A scanner, such as those used in grocery stores, matches the bar code on the blood sample with a bar code on the patient’s bracelet. After instituting such a system in 1999, Georgetown University Hospital recorded no fatalities related to mistaken samples over the next five years.
There are other reasons you may have a reaction to transfused blood–even if it’s your own. And the donated blood may become infected with bacteria if it is stored improperly.
The most common objection to the use of pre-donated blood is that it may not be needed. And since most autologous blood samples have not been subjected to the same stringent screening procedures, they can rarely be put in the general supply. About half of autologous samples eventually get discarded.
In recent years, doctors have found innovative, more efficient ways to use the patient’s own blood during a surgical procedure. With hemodilution, some of the patient’s whole blood is set aside early in the procedure to be re-infused later. In the meantime, fluid is added to keep the blood volume at a high enough level during surgery.
Another method, RBC salvage, collects the patient’s blood that would otherwise be lost during surgery into a reservoir where it is washed with a saline solution filtered and then re-infused.
Future solutions to the shortage of donated blood include the use of artificial blood products and measures to increase the shelf life of blood. Swedish scientists have developed a dried blood that can be stored for years, and early results have been promising.
Surgical procedures today–using lasers, electrocautery and other methods–are less likely to cause significant blood loss. And doctors no longer consider a blood transfusion essential after surgery as they once did. It’s estimated that 90 percent of operations can be performed without a blood transfusion.
Blood is valuable. A pint saved is a pint earned.
REFERENCES:
“Answering Queries on Autologous Transfusion,” Pulse, July 1, 2002.
“Blood Management in Hip and Knee Arthroplasty Studied,” World Disease Weekly Plus, March 15, 1999.
“Blood Transfusions Cause West Nile Virus” Medical Laboratory Observer, June, 2004.
“Donating Blood to Yourself: Safer–Or a Big Waste?” Prevention, December, 2002.
“Efficacy of Pre-Operative Donation Studied,” Transplant Weekly, April 26, 1999.
Paul V. Holland, Richard K. Spence and Laurie Lewis, “Making Donated Blood Safer–and Less Necessary,” Patient Care, June 15, 1997.
Marilynn Larkin, “Value of Preoperative Autologous Blood Donation Questioned,” The Lancet, August 31, 2002.
Jeffrey McCullough, “Progress Toward a Pathogen-Free Blood Supply,” Clinical Infectious Diseases, July 1, 2003.
Janice G. McFarland, “Perioperative Blood Transfusions,” Chest, May, 1999.
NWHRC Health Center, “Blood Donation and Transfusion: Overview,” January 5, 2004.
Monica Preboth, “Preoperative Autologous Blood Donation,” American Family Physician, June 15, 2001.
Elizabeth S. Vanderlinde, Joanna M. Heal and Neil Blumberg, “Autologous Transfusion,” British Medical Journal, March 30, 2002.
