A blood transfusion occurs every two seconds and one blood donation can save multiple lives according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
Wayne State College recently hosted a blood drive through the American Red Cross. Drives such as this are open to faculty, students, and anyone in the community who is willing to donate. There are numerous reasons people choose to participate in giving blood.
Like anything else, blood donation can have positive and negative consequences.
One of many positive effects is that blood donation helps those in need. Blood can go to people who have had traumatic blood loss, surgery patients and the sick. Those who are interested in making an impact in this way can actually see where their donation is sent through the American Red Cross mobile app.
In addition to helping those in need, blood donation can be beneficial to those donating. According to an article from the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, blood donation has the ability to lower blood pressure and reduce excess amounts of iron in the body.
Kenzie Divis, a sophomore at Wayne State has donated blood six times through school sponsored donation days.
“Donating blood is pretty easy for me,” Divis said. “It’s always nice because it only takes fifteen minutes, and then you get free snacks and juice boxes.”
In addition to snacks and juice, the Red Cross has other ways to entice donors including free t-shirts and gift cards.
Despite the potential to receive free items, there are potential negatives to donating blood.
“After sitting there, I can go out and do my normal life. I’m able to hang out with friends and be outside just like a normal day,” Divis said.
Not all people have this same experience, however. Some donors can feel numerous symptoms such as dizziness or vomiting while donating blood. Afterwards people can also feel lethargy impeding on daily life. While the risk is small, there is also the potential for an infection at the needle site after donating blood. This is not likely as all the equipment is sterilized, but there is always a slim chance.
Another potential downside to donation is the time it takes. For people like Divis the donation process is fast and easy. For others the process can take much longer, potentially taking a larger portion of your day than anticipated.
There are many potential pros and cons to blood donation, but before any consequences have the potential to manifest, donors must be eligible for donation.
In order to give blood, donors must meet numerous requirements and answer a series of questions as part of the screening process. Donors must be generally healthy and cannot have taken certain medications, such as antibiotics, prior to your donation. Donors must also meet age, height and weight requirements that differ between states.
Once those requirements are met there is a questionnaire, referred to as the Individual Donor Assessment, you need to fill out on the day of your donation. This assessment includes questions about a person’s medical, sexual and travel history.
Even with the number of questions asked during the screening process, there are some caveats as to who is allowed to donate blood.
Historically, gay men or members of the LGBTQ+ community who had sexual contact with gay men were not allowed to donate blood. A change to this rule came in 2023. According to the Nebraska Community Blood Bank website this is when the Food and Drug Administration changed the guidelines for blood donation from gay individuals. There is not a separate set of questions based on sexual orientation, and the existing set of survey questions was modified to be more inclusive. These new guidelines are still more rigid than those for heterosexual individuals, but it is progress nonetheless.
