Talk:Blood donation

What's this? by a simple iron test. A phlebotomist pricks the donor's finger and elicits a small drop of blood. This blood is placed into a chemical solution — if the blood is dense enough to sink in the solution, there is sufficient iron in the blood to donate. I have never seen this or heard of it. Standard procedure is probably a hemoglobin quickcheck with a hemoglobin photometer. Kosebamse 19:45, 10 Apr 2004 (UTC)

They did it to me. I can't say for sure if the person who pricked my finger was a phlebotomist (I have no idea what it means), or if they were really testing my iron levels, but it appears as though the finger-prick-sink-or-float is one standard way of doing it. I know for sure that different places bandage you differently after the donation, so they aren't absolutely uniform. Paullusmagnus 22:56, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Phlebotomist is a person who is licensed to draw blood. I should start a page on that. I know they do the donation process, but not sure if they do the iron test.

Not sure what a "hemoglobin quickcheck" and "hemoglobin photometer" are. The process described here is how it was done for me the three times I've donated blood (Western NY, and Massachusetts). It seems very likely to me that different methods are used in different regions of the world, or with different administering agencies. Unfortunately neither the Red Cross page nor Britain's National Blood Service give further details, only saying that "iron content will be checked," so we can't reference it well. Kosebamse, perhaps you can add information about the iron test you're more familiar with?

--zandperl 02:41, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I just created "phlebotomist" and someone there mentioned the hematocrit test. I think this all needs clarification. See also discussion at Talk:Phlebotomist. --zandperl 03:13, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Some faith groups prohibit blood donation and transfusion. Is it worth mentioning this in the article? Adambisset 20:06, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Yes.

Does anyone have any history on how/when screening regulations were created? Cigarette 21:39, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

finger-prick-sink-or-float is how they do it whenever I've given in the UK. If the result from that is inconclusive, they then do another test.--JBellis 21:34, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

How long does it typically take for 500 ml to be donated? --Commander Keane 13:02, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

4-15 minutes is the standard most blood banks use as a "normal" donation. Too fast probably means you hit an artery and not a vein (messy and painful), and too slow leaves a risk of the blood clotting in the tubing and other problems. 6-8 minutes is typical. Most of the time in donation is in health screening (10-15 minutes), setup (5-10 minutes), and just good old fashioned waiting your turn, especially if you didn't set up an appointment (0-? minutes).

20-30 minutes. JFW | T@lk 14:24, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

I think it is less than that; it typically takes me 12-15 minutes to give blood (once I have been "plugged" to the pump). I'll check that next time I give blood. By the way I live in Quebec... but I guess the technology used here will be similar to yours. -- Hugo Dufort 22:12, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

That depends on the indivdual. In some (rare) cases it may be infinite (e.g. the chosen blood vein collapses prior to reaching 500 ml as the body has rerouted the return blood flow to a nearby vein. That happened to me three times. [My brother is worse, when they needed the much smaller amount of blood for testing they had to poke him repeatly to get enough blood.) The blood banks themselves tend to start the last treatments no later than 30 minutes prior to planned closure. Jon 19:48, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

In Poland it takes about 7 minutes, approximately (but we take 450 ml, half a kilogram). For me, it twice took around 5 minutes. Tomasz W. Kozłowski (talk) 21:53, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

U.K. Donation of 470 ml and today 4 minutes 47 seconds. I always consider below 5 minutes a good time and have completed 25 donations without problem. Make sure you have drunk plenty and eaten well and I find being nice and warm helps quicken the donation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 51.7.226.18 (talk) 22:19, 13 December 2016 (UTC) apparently the U.K. Record is 3 minutes, 32 seconds. I've only done it in 4 minutes, 27 seconds. Donated today May 10, 2019; it took me 4 minutes and 11 seconds.

Hb blood level < 13 g/dL reduced the antibody response by 63% (p=0.04).

https://journals.lww.com/transplantjournal/Abstract/9000/Humoral Respo

Link does not, in fact, lead to an article showing this correlation. IAmNitpicking (talk) 17:41, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

Good to know during covid-19 and flu season?

--ee1518 (talk) 16:18, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

The pictogram at the start disturbs me. It looks like someone holding their arm to their head as if they have a massive headache, or recoiling from something extremely unpleasant. Where did it come from? Is it something official? I recommend removing it. HiLo48 (talk) 22:54, 1 February 2025 (UTC)