The Health Benefits Of Blood Transfusions

As expected, with war comes extensive injuries. During WWI, it took a wounded soldier about 24 hours to travel from the battlefield to a hospital. Many times, the soldiers did not live through that excruciating 24 hours. The wounds inflicted on many soldiers led to the development of new medical techniques and improvements (iWonder 2015). The quickly rising death toll during WWI led to the creation of blood transfusion techniques. Prior to WWI, blood transfusions were nearly impossible without cross-matching blood types. An article published by Medical History argues that, “Though the technique (blood transfusions) caused several deaths, it did save dozens of other men, proving its lifesaving

Donating blood improves cardiovascular health. Reducing heart attacks can be solved by reducing your blood viscosity, which is how thick and sticky your blood is. It’s caused by too much iron building up in the arties. Men are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease than women. There are studies that show that out of 3,000 men 88% of the ones who donated blood had less risk of a heart attack by 50% then those who didn’t donate at all. Also when you go to donate blood it’s like getting a free mini check-up. They check your blood pressure, heart rate, temperature and iron levels.

The market of human blood transfusions is broken down into different uses: Elective Surgery, Emergency Surgery and Trauma. However, Hemopure seems to be suitable only for trauma cases due to its characteristics and, again, high price. To understand the reason, it is important to notice that, actually, only 10% of the 500,000 trauma victims receives RBCs “in the field” or at the site of accident, and the remaining 95% of these people does not receive transfusions until they arrive at the hospital. This delay was often cited as a major factor to the 20,000 trauma deaths. Therefore, since the expected market share for Biopure is 25% and assuming that the total blood transfusions remain stable, the potential market size for Hemopure is approximately $350,000,000. This size is based on an average price of $700 multiplied by 2,000,000 units (around 4 blood units are needed for each Trauma case).

Plasma is used to keep a healthy blood pressure, supplying proteins for blood clotting and immunity, and serves as the medium for the exchange of vital minerals. It is attained by separating the liquid part of the blood from the cells. Dr. Charles Drew set up a blood plasma system in 1938; he set up a blood bank at Columbia Medical Center by 1939. Drew then discovered that plasma could replace whole blood; this discovery played a huge role during the war in places with severe atrocities. Blood was in high demand in 1940 as war raged across Europe. The International Transfusion Association chose Dr. Drew to organize the Blood for Britain project. This project collected, processed, and transported 14,500 units of plasma within five months. The research of Dr. Drew transformed plasma transfusion so plasma could be given on the battlefield immediately. Dr. Drew was appointed Director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank in February 1941. This plasma collection and preservation program is a model for today’s blood donation organizations. When the program ended in September 1945, the American Red Cross had gathered over 13 million units of blood and transformed most of it into plasma. By the end of the war, 1.3 million plasma units were returned to the American Red Cross, which were given to civilian hospitals (World War

Our nation has a major blood shortage which results in a national health crisis. States all over the nation are reporting the need for blood donors and the importance of having donors to help those who are directly affected. There has been a recent rise in shortage due to the increased demand of high complex surgeries which require a large supply of blood. McMillan reports, “just one liver transplant can take 120 units of donated blood” (Zabarenko, 2016). It is imperative to bring attention to this social problem, and begin to search for possible solutions, as well as identifying gaps in the policy before seeking policy revision. Experts indicate that “the only solution is for this problem is to persuade people to become donors” (Nagourney, 2009).

The Red Cross provides blood for patients in approximately 2,600 hospitals across the U.S. The Red Cross makes blood available to any patient who needs it — patients are not required to find donors to replace the blood they use allowing the patient and their family to focus on recovery. Eighty percent of the blood donations given to the Red Cross are collected at mobile blood drives set up at community organizations, companies, high schools, and colleges, places of worship or military installations. The remaining 20 percent are collected at Red Cross donation centers. The American Red Cross works with more than 50,000 blood drive sponsors each year to hold more than 200,000 blood drives, providing convenient locations for people to give

Meeting the demand for blood in the United States is no small feat. Every two seconds someone is in need of blood in the United States and 36,000 units of red blood cell each day. Furthermore, there are many reasons that a person may not be able to donate blood, resulting in only 38% of the population being eligible to donate blood. (“Blood Facts”) Therefore, a policy that allows more people to donate blood is intuitive.

He explains that it benefits the immune system by keeping macrophages (protective blood cells) low on iron even though there is an excess in the liver and other areas. That way, when macrophages carry diseases to the lymphatic system to be killed, they can’t multiply and use the lymphatic system to seize the rest of the body. This is what enabled the survivors of the bubonic plague, tuberculosis, and many other disease to continue living. This may be why hemochromatosis is one of the most prevalent diseases in people of European descent. Once again, a recurring topic is bloodletting. Moalem gives us the background of the practice and explains why something so rudimentary would still be used today: there is a ton of iron in

In a publication of the Stanford University School of Medicine, held an article entitled “Against the Flow—What’s Behind the Decline in Blood Transfusions?” The author of that article, Sarah C. P. Williams, stated: “Over the past decade, a growing body of research has revealed that in hospitals around the world, donated blood is used more often, and in larger quantities, than is needed to help patients—both in operating rooms and hospital

1977 ".. many a person might decline blood simply because it is essentially an organ transplant that at best is only partially compatible with his own blood." {JWQB 41} [A most amazing 'medical' analogy!]

Blood transfusions can be a life-sustaining medical procedure; yet its significance has been neglected. Like many procedures, the risk of potentially harmful complications are vast, however in healthcare the consequence of a mistake is death. For instance, when an acute hemolytic reaction can occur when a patient receives incompatible blood. The symptoms of which include pain, chills, fever, tachycardia, hypotension, and even renal failure (Kessler, 2013). Human error has required hospitals to implement specific protocols which aim to prevent errors and reduce the likelihood of harmful complications. These protocols consist of many "rights", which ensure correct identity and blood product. Nurses are responsible for the final bedside check

The United States blood supply depends largely on a volunteer donation system to meet current demand for blood and blood products. As such, it is imperative that effort is directed towards not only recruiting new donors, but motivating existing donors to return. Retaining repeat donors hold several advantages as this population poses a lower risk for infectious diseases, and are less likely to experience an adverse reaction (Glynn et al., 2000; Yu, Chung, Lin, Chan, & Lee, 2007; Zou, Stramer, & Dodd, 2012). Unfortunately, repeat donors are faced with a variety of challenges which impact their decision to return, such as decreasing motivation, lifestyle barriers affecting access to donation sites, convenience, fears about needles and pain and

The topic of blood donation well-researched, with strategies having been devised to try and increase donation rates all over the world. Australia faces a challenging set of circumstances, in which remuneration for donation is illegal (ARCBS, 2013). It is thought this may be a contributing factor to the poor repeat donation rates in youth demographics, for whom altruism is no longer a primary driving factor when considering donation (Russell-Bennett, Hartel, Previte & Russel, 2012).

Just imagine if one of your brothers or sisters was born with a heart defect and had to have daily transfusions of blood in order to have a chance of survival. Unfortunately, things happen like this everyday and some of you may have experienced them already. In this essay I am going to persuade you to become a blood donor. I try to donate blood every two months or so because it makes me feel like I am doing something good and saving people’s lives. Do you know that 95% of all Americans will need a blood transfusion sometime in our lives (Red Cross web site)? That statistic means that there is a possibility that you, and your family and friends could need support from volunteer blood donors. In this essay I will discuss the need for blood donations, solutions that can increase blood donations, and actions that need to be taken to increase blood donations.

62 Griffith University students, 35 female and 27 male age 18 – 30 were asked to participate in our survey. Respondents had to fill out 20 questions which included demographic questions on age, gender and nationality as well as questions regarding awareness, attitude and actual behaviour towards blood donation. The quantitative data from our survey was entered into