What does the American Red Cross do with all the blood it collects?
I've heard that some it it is sold overseas and some of it goes bad and must be thrown away.
Some of it is used for research and much is used in hospitals.
Can anybody find some statistics for me? ************************************************** 02-19-04, 10:14 AM Georgia85 During times of "normal" donations only about 2% of the blood that is collected is destroyed due to test results. Red Cross.Org
After the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Red Cross collected so much blood that they ended up having to destroy 1 in every 5 donations. Washington Post Usually surplus blood is frozen but it only has a 42 day shelf life and there was such a huge donations that Red Cross did not have the space to store all the blood.
Blood that is not used right away is sold to hosptitals. A pint of 0 negative blood (the true univeral blood type) goes for around $100. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that supplies almost half of the nation's blood supply by working with more than 4 million donors and 3,000 hospitals. They rely on the generous gifts volunteer blood donors provide. In order for the Red Cross to make that gift available to patients in need, they must collect, store, test and process the blood. There are significant costs associated with each of these processes, and in order for them to continue making one person's donation available to someone else who needs it, they must charge for the testing and processing of the blood to recoup these costs. Red Cross.Org
02-26-04, 10:17 AM Georgia85 NC, I haven't found any source from the American Red Cross that even validates the fact that blood is sold overseas. Besides, once blood is donated it is broken down into many different components with Granulocytes needing to be used withing 24 hours of blood donation.
Here are some more statistics for you: After it is donated, whole blood is most often broken down into components: red blood cells (shelf life 42 days under refrigeration), platelets (shelf life 5 days) , plasma (frozen for up to 1 year), granulocytes (24 hours). Other products manufactured from blood include albumin, immune globulin, specific immune globulins, and clotting factor concentrates. Commercial manufacturers commonly produce these blood products.
The 13.9 million units of donated blood each year are broken down into more than 26.5 million units of blood components, which are in turn transfused to about 4.5 million patients per year.
The American Red Cross supplies blood to 3,000 hospitals across the country.
American Red Cross blood collections increased 23.6 percent from 4.95 million in calendar year 1995 to 6.12 million in calendar year 2000 (about 4.3 percent compounded annually).
25% of blood products are used to treat cancer patients.
why do you get paid in the states for giving blood? and why dont we get paid if we donate here in canada?
02-27-04, 05:40 AM NCcichlid In the US the Red Cross does not pay for blood donations. The blood they collect is sold.
One of the reasons for my original question is the Red Cross is constantly saying blood supplies are at near critical levels and I'm trying to find out is this a real emergency or simply a ruse to collect more donated samples to resell.
I was called on the phone the other day to donate again, supplies were again "near critical" levels. They offered me an appointment at 3:45. When I got there at 3:45 I waited for over 30 minutes and was dismayed when I found out that it would be another 30 minutes before I got to the first station and those that had 4:00 appointments that had showed up early were being seen before me.
02-27-04, 07:05 AM Sherasi the payment is the "enticement" to give blood.. people (including myself, I guess Red Face )are not giving blood as they should... and getting payed actually provides additional motivation to GIVE blood. Frown
02-27-04, 08:46 AM methos Sher and Lynda - I think you misunderstood something somewhere. In the US, it is illegal to pay someone for their blood, and the Red Cross doesn't do so. What NC and GA are talking about is essentially a service fee for the collection, storing, and distribution of blood, none of the money goes to the donator (unless you count the OJ and cookies Wink)
It is, however, legal to pay if only the blood plasma is taken.
02-27-04, 12:07 PM Sherasi MIke, I only know that when I was in Baltimore, people were being paid a couple bucks to donate blood. It was right out in the open in the business section of town, and it was a very clean bright environment.. not a back-room sort of covert operation.
02-27-04, 01:27 PM Georgia85 Sher, I don't doubt that people were being paid but I do suspect it wasn't the American Red Cross that was running the blood drive.
The American Red Cross accepts only volunteer blood. Scientific data shows that people who donate blood for altruistic reasons are the safest blood donors.
Besides, as Methos pointed out, it is illegal in the US to pay people for blood. Perhaps there was something else going on with that blood drive that you were not aware of? Maybe the couple of bucks was to cover parking expenses. Or maybe they were paying for everyone's snack.
02-27-04, 01:38 PM DorianGreyed I am surprised to read that it is illegal to sell your own blood. I have done so, as have millions. The last time I did it, about 1993, I was paid $15 for the first pint, and $35 for the next pint about 10 days later. There were several businesses in St. Louis buying blood, and the one I went to paid the most. To the best of my knowledge, those places are still in business.
02-27-04, 01:44 PM methos I could be wrong, I am only working off my own recollection and not a substantive source here, I'll try to look into it. It may also have been a state law.
02-27-04, 03:00 PM mattlynda so the commercials ive been seeing saying 'come get paid to give blood' arent from the red cross.
i will pay attention a bit more next time i see it and try to catch the name of the company.
02-27-04, 04:03 PM Georgia85 On a pamphlet I have from the American Red Cross it states in the FAQ section that donors will not be paid because "FDA Rules state that blood used for a transfusion cannot be bought". This could be partly due to the American Red Cross agreeing to improve blood safety as a result to a civil suit brought about in 1993. There were a number of safety problems identified by FDA inspections at the Red Cross Biomedical Headquarters in Arlington, VA.
If anyone is interested in reading the transcript, you can access it here:
02-27-04, 04:03 PM Fritzzs As DG said, it IS totally legal to sell your own blood....I did it quite regularlly back in my younder days...Many times it paid for my electric bills )...Not to the RC of course, but to hospitals....
03-05-04, 02:02 PM methos My apologies. It appears it was a state law, and not a federal one.
I contacted the Red Cross, they contacted the FDA consumer inquiry section. The FDA said there are no federal guidelines.
As for the actual question, I forgot to ask Frown. However, I find it unlikely that much if any is sold overseas because of the following data from the National Blood Data Resource Center (all for 2001):
U.S. institutions collected more than 15 million units of whole blood and red cells. (93% donated, 7% hospitals)
U.S. hospitals transfused nearly 14 million units of whole blood and red blood cells.
Aprroximately 4% of the blood collected was set aside for the use of the donor.
Nearly 2% of the blood was discarded because it did not pass screening tests.
Working off these numbers, 15 million less 6% is approximately 14 million. That doesn't leave much room for overseas sale.
[This message was edited by methos on 03-05-04 at 02:10 PM.]
[This message was edited by methos on 03-05-04 at 02:11 PM.]
This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,
Posts: 1641 | Location: North Carolina, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
