Your husband is in serious car accident and is rushed to a nearby hospital, bleeding profusely from head injuries. Your mom experiences significant blood loss during complicated open-heart surgery. We take for granted that blood will always be available if it’s needed. Thanks to the folks who regularly donate blood for transfusions, it almost always is.
During the traditional blood donation process, the donor gives a unit of whole blood – roughly a pint – which is then centrifuged, or spun out, into platelets, red cells and plasma. Recent technological advances have led to a new automated collection process, called “double red blood cell collection,” that allows eligible donors to give two units of blood during one visit to the donation site, doubling the number of red cells that are obtained during the traditional method. Red blood cells make up about 40 percent of whole blood, and carry oxygen to the body’s cells, while carrying carbon dioxide from these cells to the lungs so it can be eliminated through the breathing process. Red cells are often needed by heart surgery patients, bone marrow transplant recipients, sickle cell patients, accident victims and kidney, liver and heart transplant recipients.
The advantages of double red donations for the donor? Even though the process can take up to 30 minutes longer than the regular donation time of 10 minutes, double red donors can donate the same number of red cells in half the number of visits if they switch to double red donations. During double red collection, a smaller needle is used, and fluids, including the donor’s own plasma along with a saline solution, are replaced, so the donors are more comfortable and better hydrated.
Eligibility requirements for double red donors are more stringent than for donors of whole blood. Male donors must be at least 5’1″ and weigh at least 130 lbs. Because their blood volume is lower than that of males, females must be at least 5’5″ tall and weigh at least 150 lbs. Double red donors must wait 16 weeks before donating again.
An important advantage to the patient is that if he or she requires a transfusion of two units of red cells, the cells will be identical, eliminating the patient’s exposure to two different donors.
Blood banks benefit from double reds because red cells from the most common blood types–type O and type B–are often in short supply, and double reds means twice the amount of red cells is available to the hospitals they serve. Red blood cells have a shelf life of 42 days, and can be stored frozen for up to 10 years.
Because it is so new, and very costly, the sophisticated double red collection equipment is available only at some locations. If you’re a veteran donor and want to try a double red donation, check to see where the nearest specially equipped facility is located. If you have limited or no experience giving blood, consider having yourself evaluated as a potential blood donor–and life saver.
Sources:
www.unitedbloodservices.org/humanbloodtypes.html
www.bloodcenter.org/donating/double.htm
American Red Cross
Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center
United Blood Services
