| Reply from the Red Cross |
 Reply from the Red Cross
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Jan. 4th, 2008 @ 09:58 am 
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I sent a slightly shortened version of my "Extremely Irritated" post to the contact address for the New England Red Cross Blood Services people. It got forwarded by the contact person to the medical director. I got a reply this morning. What the medical director said is after the cut.
Dear Mr. Furr.
Thanks for your multiple blood donations to the American Red Cross
I am the medical director of the Northern New England Region of the American Red Cross Blood Services and I have been asked to provide a response to your questions about our new method for testing blood donors for hemoglobin--the Hemocue instrument method. Carol Dembeck from our Communications Department in Burlington, VT asked me to address your concerns.
All blood collection agencies in the US are required to defer prospective blood donors who have a hemoglobin of less than 12.5 g/dL or a hematocrit of less than 38%. Until last fall, the Red Cross was performing the hemoglobin screen with a combination of a qualitative hemoglobin tests for screening (the drop of blood in a copper sulfate vial) and a qualitative confirmatory test ( a spun hematocrit using a centrifuge). We are currently using a more accurate test that measures the actual amount of hemoglobin in the donor with a Hemocue instrument. This change was made in order to increase the accuracy of the hemoglobin tests and prevent donors from developing iatrogenic anemia from blood donations.
Having thalassemia minor is not a cause for a donor deferral yet donors with thalassemia still required to have a hemoglobin of 12.5g/dL to be eligible to donate blood. In your case, you were deemed to be eligible for a blood donation based on the dual copper sulfate/spun hematocrit tests but when your hemoglobin was tested with a more accurate test you were found to have a hemoglobin of 11.5 g/DL and not 12.g/dL. Having beta thalassemia is a logical explanation for this discrepancy in hemoglobin tests between the dual and less accurate tests and the newer and most direct test of hemoglobin.
In the future you are most welcome to come to a Red Cross Blood drive and attempt donating blood it might be the case that your hemoglobin test will be less than 12.5 g/dL.
Jorge Rios, MD
Medical Director
American Red Cross
Dedham, MA
1-800-462-9400 ext 2221
So, if I understand correctly, the new test measures hemoglobin and not red cell percentage (which is what a 'hematocrit' measures), and as such, is more accurate if what you're after is preventing people with low hemoglobin from donating.
If so, it sounds like I probably would not have been eligible to donate the vast majority of the times I did in fact donate over the last ten years... not if they were using the new machines to evaluate my blood, that is.
As I said, I'll probably try one more time after taking lots and lots of iron for a few days or a week. If I still show up as absurdly low in terms of hemoglobin, I'm probably going to bag it for good. I don't need to go in week after week, month after month, only to get told time after time that my blood's never good enough.
If you wonder why this bothers me... well, it's probably because knowing that I had O negative blood made me proud in a weird way. Since I had this awesome blood I felt I had a responsibility to donate as often as I was able to in order to help the largest number of people. Finding out that I'm never going to be able to donate again simply because the manner of testing the blood has changed is a real blow. Sad, isn't it?Current Mood:  disappointed |
I've been sad for some time since I've not been able to donate blood for the last 6 years due to possibility of mad cow disease, yet I'm more than willing to give them whatever they need. Oh well. It's a wonder they have any blood with all the resrictions coming down, but then I understand their need to be careful.
I've never been able to give blood - I'm chronically anemic
and my veins collapse. I once went into shock after giving
a sample to get a secure job. So you've done more good in
the world than I - rejoice!
![[User Picture Icon]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/11297031/2180929) |
| From: | ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) batzel |
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| Date: |
January 12th, 2008 01:34 am (UTC) |
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What about other donation methods? Plasma, for instance? The local childrens' hospital takes plasma donations that go directly to their patients, so one even knows where their donation goes.
Or volunteer to help out at the drives. Or sit on the street corner wearing a black-and-red cape with your hair slicked straight back with a cardboard sign that says "Give Blood -- Feed the Hungry" (and tell anyone who asks that the two statements are related only by the common thread of charity and criticize them for being so thoughtless).
My wife seems startled that you're "of mediterranean descent", by the way.
![[User Picture Icon]](http://p-userpic.livejournal.com/60602378/2129208) |
| From: | jayfurr |
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January 12th, 2008 01:44 am (UTC) |
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Well, I got the trait from somewhere. Obviously, as mongrelized as my bloodline is, there's no telling what my ancestry really breaks down to short of doing that cool genetic testing that occasionally reveals that your local white supremacist actually must have had a black great-grandfather.
As for volunteering, it comes back to what I told the yeti: it's hard for me to volunteer somewhere because of my travel schedule. :(
Edited at 2008-01-12 01:45 am (UTC)
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