submitted 4 months ago by CAVOK@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I've been a blood donor for most of my adult life, and have donated about 30 liters. Where I'm at you get a token donation and a thanks for donating, but someone mentioned that in the US you get paid quite a lot depending on the quality and the blood type.

I have a fairly uncommon blood type (about 10% of the population) and a blood count of around 150.

So, how wealthy would I have been if I had donated my blood in the US instead?

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[-] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago

Interesting... How is it risky?

[-] philpo@feddit.de 6 points 4 months ago

Because then people who urgently need money do everything to get that money.

E.g. lie in that questionnaire. And you know who needs a lot of money? Intravenous drug users. Who tend to share needles. And have a higher risk of high risk sexual behaviour (both from prostitution itself but also rape, infections in their mucosal areas,etc)

[-] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago

Right... but I was asking about the technical method itself.

I'm pretty sure they'd check your blood before you proceed.

[-] philpo@feddit.de 4 points 4 months ago

the problem is that blood can be check only so thoroughly - some illnesses only develop much later and can only be tested for then, especially on a large scale. That's why in most countries the first donation is not actually used for anything besides testing.

Anyway, plasmapheresis/apheresis has the risk of a reaction to the sodium citrate that is used as a anticoagulant - there are systems that use no sodium citrate but they increase the risk for embolisms. Sodium citrate can cause hypocalcaemia, seizures,hypertention and a few more things,but generally it's safe in the donor setting.

this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2024

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