Blood Donors and Recipients explained

Blood Safety and Matching Donation Procedure and Donor Safety - Whole Blood Donations Since the institution of blood banking, safety for both donors and blood recipients has been continually and significantly improved. Because a safe, reliable source of blood is critical to providing effective blood products to recipients, blood banks are dependent on the altruistic voluntary donations of citizens. As a result, blood banks place great emphasis on making the donation process pleasant, convenient, and as safe as possible for donors. The donation process begins with a screening procedure to determine if the donor is healthy and has no conditions that would make his or her donation hazardous. Donors are asked about their general health, as well as their travel history and possible past exposure of blood-transmitted diseases, such as HIV, malaria, and hepatitis. A simple physical, including blood pressure, pulse rate, and temperature, is used to rule out other risks. This physical will also look for signs of any of the blood-transmitted diseases that might increase recipient risk. A simple laboratory measurement is used to make sure that the blood donation will not make the donor anemic. If the donor is found suitable for donating blood, approximately one pint of blood is collected from an arm vein into a plastic bag. This is normally well tolerated by the donor, since the average donor’s blood volume is about 11 pints. The donor will produce replacement fluid for the blood donation within 24 hours and red blood cells in four to six weeks. At least eight weeks between donations are therefore required for whole blood donations. Complications of blood donations are uncommon and usually minor. Fainting is typically the most significant complication encountered. This can be minimized by requiring the donor to wait a short period of time after donation before standing, and to eat and drink fluids before leaving the donor area. Minor bruising at the needle site may also occur. Recipient Safety Risks for a person receiving blood can be divided into several categories, which include reactions due to incompatible blood types, allergic reactions, and infections in the donated blood. By strictly adhering to standardized procedures, these risks have been reduced to a minimum. Blood Type Matching On their surface, red cells have inherited chemical structures called antigens that can cause a person’s immune system to make antibodies against them. Humans have 35 major groups or families of these antigens, as well as other minor groups, but consideration of two, the ABO group and the RhD group, is very important to ensure that a transfusion recipient receives compatible blood. The presence of antigens within these groups is what determines a person’s blood type. Blood types are referred to as Type A, Type B, Type AB (which has both A and B antigens), or Type O (which has neither A or B antigens) followed by positive or negative, which indicates the presence of the RhD antigen. Persons who are RhD negative have no RhD antigen. #bloodTyping #bloodTypingMadeEasy #bloodTypingLab #bloodTypingTest #bloodTypingExplained #bloodTypingNursing #bloodGroupsAndBloodTypes #bloodGroupsExplained #bloodGroupsAndTransfusions #bloodGroupsVideo #aboBloodTypesExplained #ABOBloodGroupSystem #aboBloodTyping #ABOBloodGroup #bloodTransfusion #bloodTransfusionNursing #bloodTypeCompatibility #bloodTypesAndRhFactor #NikolaysGeneticsLessons #bloodDonors #bloodRecipients #ABO