Recently, I was invited to Biloxi to attend a medical conference in which I was asked to be Chief Instructor for the Cadaver Skills Lab. I spent several days working with another group of instructors as we taught basic and advanced medical procedures on the cadaver specimens. One of the most common questions I was asked was, “Where did you get these bodies from?” I had to resist the urge to say “I brought them from home.” Seriously though, there are so many people that have questions about body, organ, and blood donation that I think it is time we all got some answers. This article focuses on blood donations while next week will cover gifts of organs and the body.
By far the most common form of donation, and arguably the most needed, is blood. You will often see the ‘blood-mobile’ at colleges and businesses especially during the busy times of the year for blood needs. We see and hear about it so often that we take it for granted that someone must be donating however much is needed, right? As someone who has worked in healthcare for many years, I can assure you this isn’t the case. It is amazing just how critically low donated blood supplies can be in Mississippi at any given time. Sometimes, it can be as little as a one or two-day supply in reserve. A critically injured trauma patient might need almost all of the blood that an area hospital has in stock. This makes constantly replenishing the supply necessary.
Blood banks want any blood, but specifically, they crave type O -. Why is that? There are four major types of blood: A, B, AB, and O. These letters indicate whether your blood contains Antigen A, Antigen B, Antigens A and B, or no antigens. Furthermore, blood is classified as whether it has a protein called Rhesus, or Rh, attached to it. We score this as either positive or negative for Rh factor. Thus, we can have eight distinct blood types: A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+, AB-, O+, and O-. Now for the tricky part. You can’t receive blood that contains either Antigen A or B if you do not already have it inside your blood or receive Rh factor positive donations if you are negative. For example, a person with A+ blood can receive from the following types: A+, A-, O+, and O-. A person who is A- can only receive A-, and O-. For this reason, AB+ is called the ‘universal recipient’ because it can receive from any blood type but can only donate to AB+. O- is called the universal donor because it can give to any blood type but only receive O. When a patient needs blood in an emergency, there is often no time to discern whether or not they have antigens or Rh factor in their blood. Therefore, they call for O- blood to be given to the patient since everyone can receive it. This makes O- blood the most precious to hospitals.
Our blood is made up of four components: red blood cells (for moving oxygen around our body), white blood cells (for fighting infections), platelets (to stop bleeding), and plasma (liquid portion). When you donate, you can choose to either give whole blood or one of the components. Generally, if you give only a portion of your blood, you are donating the red blood cells which will be mixed with a solution to create more ‘engineered blood’ than you could donate on your own. In either case, the process is simple. You will be asked a series of questions involving your medical history and social interactions to assure that you are not a high-risk candidate for blood-borne diseases. After this, you will be placed in a chair and a special needle inserted into your vein. This is usually what people hate the most because they still haven’t perfected blood donation by osmosis. After the needle is inserted, your donation will begin and last about twenty minutes.
Donating blood is extremely healthy for your body and encourages the growth of new red blood cells. These red blood cells are replaced by the bone marrow in about 30 days. If you haven’t donated in a while, I ask you to consider restarting the process. If you have never given, find your nearest blood donation office and walk right in. One of the great slogans of the blood network is “the life you save might be your own,” which I agree with. Please, be someone’s hero and donate the gift of life. Stay safe out there.
M. Eric Williams, MS, NR-P
Emergency Medical Faculty
Jones County Junior College
Questions/Comments: eric.williams@jcjc.edu
