I'm a haemophiliac so I can't donate blood (although I would like to if I wasn't a haemophiliac).
Does being a haemophiliac prevent me from being an organ donor?
PM me if you want a PDF copy of the ICD-10or the Mental Health Act 1983/2007. I ALSO HAVE THE DSM-V BOOK and am a pharmacology student.
I have a visual impairment / neurological problems so I need people to type in clear text and no funny fonts. Also excuse any typos, my vision blocks things out.
I have autism and have problems communicating, PMs included.
Just becasue I type well doesn't mean I speak well. I am only part time verbal.
I think this might be a UK/US thing, but the platelet needles here are smaller than the whole blood needles. I was horrified when I went to donate blood after not doing it for years and I saw those needles.
NB, I'm in the US.
There's nothing wrong if you don't or can't donate for one reason or another. I happen to live nearby and I happen to have the time so I do it. If for any reason you cannot or don't want to, don't feel bad.
There's reasons that there isn't a lot of blood to go around.
Like, who knows their blood type and can tell the hospital if they go in for a procedure? In the event of an emergency and they need to give you blood ASAP, they're not going to wait around and type your blood for you. They're going to give you O negative.
In an accident, what are they going to do if you are unconscious and they need to give you those good red blood cells? They're going to give you O negative if you do not have your blood card with you.
They always always always want O negative BLOOD. They NEED that. That is what hospitals give out most often. That's what gets used up.
I am not O negative, that's why I only donate once or twice a year. I do platelets, which have a smaller needle. I am not a big beefy guy. I am a short girl. My stuff goes to cancer patients and hemophiliacs and accidents, but mostly the first two.
In addition to using the hell out of O negative, people can only donate whole blood a maximum of four times a year. So, there's a chronic shortage because most people just don't donate. For instance, neither of my brothers have ever donated anything.
And anyway, most women are borderline for donating because.... periodically their iron gets depleted.
Forgot to say; I am on the organ donor list too, so at least when I die, maybe I could still help someone's life; assuming the organs needed are actually healthy and are not f*ked lol.
I'm underweight, in poor health and gay. They don't want me :p
However I think I'm gonna pass this on to people who health wise are eligible to donate.
Now's too late. Too late to live and my consience's killing me. So I am alive but I'm not free.
For all of you that can relate to this too...
The ban on gay males donating is disgusting. So long as they can prove they are clear of HIV and any other problems I see no reason why they shouldn't donate whatever their habits in the bedroom.
'Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.'
['There is only one thing we say to death. Not today'.']
'We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.’ – Oscar Wilde
‘It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back.’ Sydney Carter
It's wonderful to hear so many people on here donate blood/platelets/are on the donor register etc. I suspect that's higher than the percentage of the general population.
I remember being in a room full of nurses a few years back and someone asked if anyone was on the donor register. I was the only one who was. They said they felt quite ashamed about that (not that nurses should be any more than anyone else... also I'm not saying everyone should be, it's a personal choice lol /disclaimer). I thought it was interesting.
I think I've told this story before buy my mum sealed her donor application envelope with sherry. Don't think they're going to be wanting her liver.
The ban on gay males donating is disgusting. So long as they can prove they are clear of HIV and any other problems I see no reason why they shouldn't donate whatever their habits in the bedroom.
Are HIV screenings done on donated blood foolproof? I know that it specifically says on the donation questionnaire that one ought not to give blood as a way of finding out if they have HIV.
No one's saying that sexually active gay males all have HIV, but I imagine statistically they are more likely to do so, and unless the screening is foolproof, it may well be statistically advisable to have a blanket ban.
NBS aren't there to help people feel good about themselves because they save a life, nor are there necessarily any judgements attached to their criteria . They exist to obtain healthy, safe blood for use in life-saving surgeries and to obtain that as ethically as possible. For that reason, I think they're perfectly entitled to impose blanket regulations on donors (both for the safety of the donor (e.g. minimum weight requirement) and the recipient (e.g. not accepting donations from sexually active gay men or people who have recently returned from a country where malaria is prevalent)) so that their time is spent collecting blood, not evaluating each individual's likelihood of being a suitable donor and of course minimising the risk of recipients being given blood that is infected with a blood-borne disease.
Disclaimer: I don't actually know the statistics in detail enough to actually pass judgement as to whether or not it's a mathematically sound criteria, I'm just hypothesising.
