Some explanations from a medical professional who works in a hospital lab: There's actually some really good reasons for asking the probing medical history questions, and the reason I don't think is what many people think: It's patient safety issues. I know it's annoying, but some of the questions are to ensure you're healthy enough while others are to ensure that you don't accidentally transmit some bloodborne disease to the potential recipients of that blood. It's not to be annoying, and it's actually not because people try to scam the system. It's because we can't reasonably test for all the weird bloodborne diseases that can be asymptomatic at the time of donation that can absolutely be transmitted to a patient (malaria, for example, isn't routinely tested for, it's screened for in the pre-donation questions). Some wilder ones like dengue fever or crimean congo hemorrhagic fever just don't have commercial tests in the US, so we have to instead rely on pre-donation screening to rule out anyone potentially exposed. Because the absolute last thing you want is to give an immunocompromised cancer patient a big dose of an absurdly lethal bloodborne disease because we didn't take an accurate enough history. And the mad cow disease stuff is probably the biggest abundance of caution thing, but imagine the repercussions if you did get it transmitted from contaminated nod transfusions. While unlikely to be transmitted via blood, it also isn't completely ruled out as a mechanism of transmission. So we screen for potential exposure with the weird questions of visiting certain countries in the 80s-90sish. None of this is intended to make you feel like a criminal. It's just to ensure the safety of the donated blood for the patients that will ultimately receive it. And also, go to a local hospital to donate if you're fed up with the red cross. We have nurses (at least at my hospital) that can explain this stuff well and will do so happily. And there are also certain high risk for novel bloodborne disease (i.e. those we haven't yet discovered) that are deffered out of an abundance of caution (the biggest one here is the question of IV drug use). It avoids accidentally transmitting a novel virus like had happened with HIV before we realized what it was and how it spread. Also, pro tip, hospital phlebs are often quite good at getting veins even in semi difficult stick patients. They've usually been doing it for years, and are quite good at it as a result (they often deal with elderly donors, and not always with the best of veins) We may still ask for social security number, but it's for medical record purposes (and we're an organization that handles them ALL the time for legit reasons, as it's required every time you check into a hospital (at least if you're paying with insurance) But, I hope this clears some stuff up. I've always had better experiences at hospital blood banks donating than what I've heard about red cross Edit: and I'll try to answer any follow up questions because I am kinda passionate about donating blood and having others donate as well. I've seen the lives they save working in the hospital. And yeah, it is inconvenient, I'll grant you that. Need about a 45 minute block of time to be sure, though I'm often done in about 25
Hello Ryan, what an incredible response you wrote. So well written and I hope other viewers read your response. You touched on so many points in my video. I appreciate you watching it in its entirety. I know I came off a bit "ranty" but it was an impromptu video I had to get off my chest. Honestly, some of the points you make I generally know but you provide way more specifics and expanded with info I didn't know. Please note that my video targets the inept treatment by Red Cross workers towards donors like me. I've not had many good experiences with many Red Cross staff. Many strike to me as lower paid staff. You are clearly a medical pro and it appears the hospital environment you work in is staffed by better people than Red Cross hires. You taught me something. I never knew hospitals accepted blood donations. However, I've grown weary spending so much time & effort to do good deeds for Red Cross. I won't say I will never give blood again but I am burned out by my Red Cross experiences. It might be a few years before I make an effort again.
Sorry to hear that this happened to you, Matthew. I've donated blood plasma before lots of times but never actual blood . Glad that you shared your experience with everyone because I'm quite sure that you aren't the only one that this has happened to . 😧
A few years I've tried to donate plasma (for pay) to see what it is like but I was turned away because they couldn't find my vein. They told me to come back but I never did.
I understand. I tried to donate blood in the 1990s a few times, each time they refused because I visited Germany in the 1980s when Mad Cow was around. I never went back.
I just found out that the Red Cross CEO makes $820,000 per year. Seriously? Red Cross also makes a ton of money off of "biomedical services" which is a fancy way of a huge markup of collecting all the donated blood. I am beginning to learn that Red Cross is a big money racket for all the begging and crappy treatment of its donors.
I served in the army, and I was turned down giving blood because since I was stationed in Germany that I might have mad cow disease. I asked the lady at the blood bank how you get tested for that. She said you have to die to find out if I got it. If their taking blood from someone have drug addictions, what's wrong with taking mine. I think that person was racist. Unbelievable
Thanks for sharing your story. The way I see it is that if they disqualify you for whatever reason, you are absolved from the responsibility of donating blood ever again. I no longer care about trying to do a good deed on this front. If someone wants my blood, they will have to pay for it and it needs to suit my mood & convenience. I've never enjoyed the blood donation experience. Many Red Cross workers are poorly trained. Thanks to Red Cross, any sense of responsibility I might have had to do my part is pretty much gone now.
Some explanations from a medical professional who works in a hospital lab:
There's actually some really good reasons for asking the probing medical history questions, and the reason I don't think is what many people think:
It's patient safety issues. I know it's annoying, but some of the questions are to ensure you're healthy enough while others are to ensure that you don't accidentally transmit some bloodborne disease to the potential recipients of that blood. It's not to be annoying, and it's actually not because people try to scam the system. It's because we can't reasonably test for all the weird bloodborne diseases that can be asymptomatic at the time of donation that can absolutely be transmitted to a patient (malaria, for example, isn't routinely tested for, it's screened for in the pre-donation questions). Some wilder ones like dengue fever or crimean congo hemorrhagic fever just don't have commercial tests in the US, so we have to instead rely on pre-donation screening to rule out anyone potentially exposed. Because the absolute last thing you want is to give an immunocompromised cancer patient a big dose of an absurdly lethal bloodborne disease because we didn't take an accurate enough history.
And the mad cow disease stuff is probably the biggest abundance of caution thing, but imagine the repercussions if you did get it transmitted from contaminated nod transfusions. While unlikely to be transmitted via blood, it also isn't completely ruled out as a mechanism of transmission. So we screen for potential exposure with the weird questions of visiting certain countries in the 80s-90sish.
None of this is intended to make you feel like a criminal. It's just to ensure the safety of the donated blood for the patients that will ultimately receive it. And also, go to a local hospital to donate if you're fed up with the red cross. We have nurses (at least at my hospital) that can explain this stuff well and will do so happily.
And there are also certain high risk for novel bloodborne disease (i.e. those we haven't yet discovered) that are deffered out of an abundance of caution (the biggest one here is the question of IV drug use). It avoids accidentally transmitting a novel virus like had happened with HIV before we realized what it was and how it spread.
Also, pro tip, hospital phlebs are often quite good at getting veins even in semi difficult stick patients. They've usually been doing it for years, and are quite good at it as a result (they often deal with elderly donors, and not always with the best of veins)
We may still ask for social security number, but it's for medical record purposes (and we're an organization that handles them ALL the time for legit reasons, as it's required every time you check into a hospital (at least if you're paying with insurance)
But, I hope this clears some stuff up. I've always had better experiences at hospital blood banks donating than what I've heard about red cross
Edit: and I'll try to answer any follow up questions because I am kinda passionate about donating blood and having others donate as well. I've seen the lives they save working in the hospital. And yeah, it is inconvenient, I'll grant you that. Need about a 45 minute block of time to be sure, though I'm often done in about 25
Hello Ryan, what an incredible response you wrote. So well written and I hope other viewers read your response. You touched on so many points in my video. I appreciate you watching it in its entirety. I know I came off a bit "ranty" but it was an impromptu video I had to get off my chest. Honestly, some of the points you make I generally know but you provide way more specifics and expanded with info I didn't know. Please note that my video targets the inept treatment by Red Cross workers towards donors like me. I've not had many good experiences with many Red Cross staff. Many strike to me as lower paid staff. You are clearly a medical pro and it appears the hospital environment you work in is staffed by better people than Red Cross hires. You taught me something. I never knew hospitals accepted blood donations. However, I've grown weary spending so much time & effort to do good deeds for Red Cross. I won't say I will never give blood again but I am burned out by my Red Cross experiences. It might be a few years before I make an effort again.
I hope the Red Cross sees this and responds accordingly.
One never knows how far a video will travel or who it will reach. :-)
I for one would love to know what they have to say.
Sorry to hear that this happened to you, Matthew. I've donated blood plasma before lots of times but never actual blood . Glad that you shared your experience with everyone because I'm quite sure that you aren't the only one that this has happened to . 😧
A few years I've tried to donate plasma (for pay) to see what it is like but I was turned away because they couldn't find my vein. They told me to come back but I never did.
@@MattCommand1My wife has the same problem. Every time she has to go and get lab work done, the plebotomist has difficulty finding her veins!
I understand. I tried to donate blood in the 1990s a few times, each time they refused because I visited Germany in the 1980s when Mad Cow was around. I never went back.
I just found out that the Red Cross CEO makes $820,000 per year. Seriously? Red Cross also makes a ton of money off of "biomedical services" which is a fancy way of a huge markup of collecting all the donated blood. I am beginning to learn that Red Cross is a big money racket for all the begging and crappy treatment of its donors.
I served in the army, and I was turned down giving blood because since I was stationed in Germany that I might have mad cow disease. I asked the lady at the blood bank how you get tested for that. She said you have to die to find out if I got it. If their taking blood from someone have drug addictions, what's wrong with taking mine. I think that person was racist. Unbelievable
Thanks for sharing your story. The way I see it is that if they disqualify you for whatever reason, you are absolved from the responsibility of donating blood ever again. I no longer care about trying to do a good deed on this front. If someone wants my blood, they will have to pay for it and it needs to suit my mood & convenience. I've never enjoyed the blood donation experience. Many Red Cross workers are poorly trained. Thanks to Red Cross, any sense of responsibility I might have had to do my part is pretty much gone now.