What happens after donating blood?

[dahzz]

Hi all :p,
I am thinking of donating blood but am scared of the aftermath.What happens after u donate blood?do u feel giddy?i heard that u can put on weight.Is it true?do u feel fresh after donating?
thx

[Shan Xue]

Hi dahzz :)

most people will feel alright after the donation. some people will feel a bit giddy. for all blood donors, the nurse will ask them to rest on the donation bench for 10 mins after their donation.

if you feel a bit giddy after the donation, continue to rest on the donation bench after 10 mins or rest at the refreshment area. only go off after you feel ok.

after donation, you will lose weight since you just gave away 450 ml of blood. the appetite after the blood donation will be better than usual but it will tone down within 1 to 3 days. so there won't be much weight increase unless psychologically, you think you must eat a lot after the blood donation to compensate :D

after donation, you will feel fresh. however, you should avoid strenous exercise for the day. your athletic performance might be slightly lower for the next 3 days.

[max_arun]

I am a new donar. Just curious to know on what happes to the blood we donate after donated. How long is it preserved? What is the process done before giving it to patients?

[Shan Xue]

after whole blood is donated, it is sent for screening and processed into components, to be given to patients or keep for storage.



Within six hours after a unit of blood is donated, it can be processed into blood products to treat a variety of medical conditions.

Whole Blood
Whole blood is used to restore blood volume whenever large amounts of blood have been lost eg. as a result of accidents, injury or during surgery and childbirth.

Red Blood Cells
Red cells carry vital oxygen through the body. It is used by patients who suffer a loss of blood due to trauma, surgery.

Plasma
Plasma is used mainly in emergency treatment of shock or in cases of severe burns.

Platelets
Platelets play an essential part in blood clotting, for instance, to treat patients with severe haemorrhage or leukaemia. Often one patient will need platelets from 10 donors or more, in a short time. These cells have a life span of only 5 days. Hence, the blood bank stock need to be constantly renewed.

Cryoprecipitate
Cryoprecipitate contains the clotting substance which is absent in patients who suffer from haemophilia.

http://www.hsa.gov.sg/html/consumer/...ves_lives.html (http://www.hsa.gov.sg/html/consumer/...ves_lives.html)

Product shelf life

Packed red cells - 42 days
Platelets - 5 days
Fresh Frozen Plasma - 1 year
Frozen red cells - 10 years

it is costly to freeze the blood components to lengthen the shelf life. it is mostly done for emergency stock.

Singapore Red Cross "Blood donor recruitment branch" office inside the blood bank (on the left when you enter the blood bank) conducts regular free talk and Q&A to potential and current blood donors. after the talk, the staff will conduct an orientation tour, where you can see the storage facilities. You can call them to register for the next talk or/and orientation tour.

[tony12]

nothing happens when you donate blood there are not any special and lethat after maths read this article



Pardon the pun, but it’s been a whirlwind of a summer with all the hurricanes making landfall this year. Hundreds of thousands in Houston are still without power – weeks after Hurricane Ike roared ashore. Hurricane Gustav, despite weakening to a Category-2 storm, is estimated to cost insurance providers some $10 billion, making Gustav the fourth most devastating storm to hit the U.S. (in financial terms).
Perhaps equally as devastating is the toll the storms put on relief assistance organizations like the American Red Cross. In the immediate aftermath of September 11th, the Red Cross was awash in money and blood donations. But due to the prevalence of weather-related disasters across the country and around the world in recent years, the Red Cross has been operating if not in the red, close to it. It’s estimated that relief assistance will cost the Red Cross between $40 and $70 million; they’ve raised a fraction of that.

In terms of blood donations, American Red Cross locations in Montana, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Hampshire – areas far removed from hurricane-related devastation – are urging people to donate blood; their supplies have been diverted to areas in dire need of it. Susan Palmer, the CEO for the New England chapter of the American Red Cross, told The Boston Globe that their down to less than a three-day supply; ideally, their supply is between three and five days.

While our fellow man’s need for blood is enough of an incentive to donate for most of us (the Red Cross says one person’s donation saves at least three lives), studies suggest that it can actually improve your health. And not just your moral health, but your actual physical health as well.

For one, donating blood helps get rid of excess iron that tends to accumulate in the blood. Too much iron in the blood and there’s an increased risk of various cancers, heart attack, even heart disease. By giving blood, the opposite is true.

According to a study conducted on a number of male blood donors of Scandinavian descent, blood donation is linked with a decreased risk of a bevy of diseases, including heart disease and some of the most frequently diagnosed cancers like lung, colon, liver and throat cancer. What’s more, the risk diminished in tandem with how frequently blood was donated (the more blood donated, the less risk for the aforementioned diseases).

In an unrelated study, this one conducted in 1998 and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, a Finnish-based study concluded that of the approximately 2,900 people studied, those that donated blood were at a 88 percent reduced risk of heart attack compared to those who had never donated blood. A 1997 study published in the journal Heart came to similar conclusions.

Again, most of us don’t need to know about the health benefits of donating blood in order to do it. But it is human nature to be more apt to do something when we know it’s good for us. Donating blood happens to be one of those things that not only saves someone else’s life, but may wind up saving our own life as well.