Do you donate blood? The diary personally tested where the subscription goes and how it is handled

It is good to prepare for donating blood the day before, by avoiding alcohol and fatty food. It is advisable to drink plenty of water, as it helps the absorption to be smoother and faster. Hospitals allow registration for the exact day and time. Registered donors have priority and will make the work of the medical staff on site easier.

On the day of collection, all you have to do is arrive at the location and the administration will follow, during which the donor will receive the card and the questionnaire. All that is needed is the identification that the donor has with him. In the case of the first donation, they will receive it including the detected blood group at the next collection.

At the Thomayer Faculty Hospital (FTN) in Krč, collections take place on weekdays from 7:15 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Some people can be grumpy at such an early hour in the morning, but from my own experience this is not the case with the local staff. Here they are always pleasant and smiling.

Two takes and three sausages

After registration, there is a small subscription. Its aim is to find out if the donor is fit enough to donate whole blood or plasma. The staff evaluates the blood within a few minutes, which the donor spends drinking coffee, water and eating cookies that are given to him on the spot. For this, he fills out a questionnaire, which the doctor then goes over with him.

The questionnaire asks about the state of health, but also about the date of the last illness, the use of medication or whether the donor has been bitten by a tick in the last 4 weeks. People with jaundice, HIV, as well as those who lived for more than 12 months in England and France between 1980 and 1996 are permanently excluded from donating. The reason is the risk of transmission of mad cow disease, which can lurk in the body even without obvious symptoms.

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This is followed by a consultation with a doctor, who will go over the questionnaire and the results of a small sample with the donor and measure his blood pressure. All this in the presence of constant smiles and casual conversation. If the doctor evaluates that everything is fine, the donor is headed for a large abrasion. With him, he first chooses which hand he wants to donate blood from, and washes it himself in his forearm. Then he heads for the chair. Here, how much water he drank the day before will be reflected in the length of the sampling. It lasts around 4 to 5 minutes and is practically not felt. All the time, the staff communicates with the donor and continuously checks whether he is feeling sick.

After the collection, all that remains is to receive the “excuse letter” from work at the registration desk and, in the case of Thomayer’s hospital, a rich breakfast in the form of three sausages, pastries, more coffee, juice and a chocolate bar. The whole process takes about an hour.

Medals and another path of blood

Regular donors welcome a number of benefits. “I’ve been going to donate since 2018. Back then, I arranged with my work colleagues and we went together. In addition to donating whole blood, I also donated plasma. I try to go as often as possible. In theory, it would come out ten times a year, but colds and tick bites come into play, so in reality it’s less,” regular donor Petr, who already has two medals at home, told Deník. For donations, he praises a regular health check, a good breakfast, a day off, but also deduction of the tax base and contributions from the insurance company in the order of thousands of crowns.

Some Prague hospitals publish on their websites which blood group is currently most needed. There are approximately 7,000 donors in the register of the General Faculty Hospital in Prague (VFN). There is currently a shortage of A+, but the data is constantly changing.

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“Approximately 6,000 donors come to us at the Thomayer Faculty Hospital in the transfusion department to donate blood every year. About 7% of them renew regularly within our registry of regular donors. Currently, we do not have a shortage of any blood group, but traditionally the greatest need is blood group – zero negative,” explained the mayor Petr Turek to Deník.

The route taken for whole blood is different. After collection, it is processed into erythrocytes (red blood cells, editor’s note), plasma and possibly thrombocytes (platelets, editor’s note). At the same time, the plasma is routinely frozen and stored in quarantine, which lasts 4 to 6 months.

Donating blood through the eyes of the editor of the Diary:

“The interval depends on the type of tests used, which investigate the presence of infectious markers of monitored, clinically significant infections (HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis). Erythrocytes and thrombocytes are released for clinical use after examination for signs of monitored infections, understandably only if the examination results are negative. Neither erythrocytes nor thrombocytes pass through the quarantine,” Daniela Dušková, head of the Faculty Transfusion Department of the VFN, clarifies to Deník, adding that the donor can of course continue to donate blood.

“After 4-6 months, if the results of the first collection after the specified period are negative, the plasma is released from quarantine and can be given to the patient,” he adds.

The hospital tries to minimize the risk of developing adverse reactions that may develop after administration of the transfusion preparation to the patient by choosing a donor. “By assessing whether it can be accepted for sampling or not (this assessment has set rules) and of course also testing each sample for signs of infection. And that by the method of detecting antibodies and the method of testing the nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) of the viral agent of infection. Another way to reduce the risk of developing an adverse reaction after a transfusion is the method of processing the collection for transfusion preparations, possibly other measures such as deleukotization, irradiation, washing…,” stated Dušková.

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Plasma that is not suitable for direct administration to the patient is sent for further processing, i.e. for the production of drugs and other tests carried out by the plasma processor. From July this year, additional tests for HIV/AIDS and jaundice B, C will be added compulsorily, and the requirements for plasma for industrial processing are somewhat milder.