Incredible Mag

Every 2 Seconds Someone Needs Blood: How It Goes From Donor to Recipient

<p>One sick or injured patient needs a transfusion every two seconds in the United States&comma; and that comes out to millions of gallons of blood each year&period; This branch of the medical industry is extremely complex&comma; and dozens of different organizations must work together to make sure that the blood is transfused as quickly and safely as possible&period; Here is a closer look at how blood components make their way from donors to patients&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Extracting Blood<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Those who are donating blood for the first time should try to arrive at the blood bank about an hour early to fill out paperwork&period; Once the paperwork is complete&comma; donors are taken to a sanitized area where the blood is extracted with a fine needle&period; Extracting blood only takes 10 minutes&comma; and most donors claim that it is more comfortable than getting a shot&period; The blood is then sealed in a bag&comma; marked&comma; and sent to the testing center&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Testing Samples<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>All blood samples must be sent to a testing center in order to prevent the spread of infections and illnesses&period; Testing centers that do donor screenings&comma; like Key Biologics&comma; LLC&comma; also extract some of the unusable cells from each sample and send them to research laboratories&period; After the sample has been tested for a wide variety of diseases&comma; the blood is then sealed in a case and sent to a trauma center&comma; hospital&comma; or surgical center&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Separating Blood and Determining Matches<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Blood is made up of a few components including red blood cells&comma; plasma&comma; and platelets&period; Those components all have different uses&comma; and the testing center or hospital will need to separate the blood before administering it&period; They must also test an antigen known as HLA to determine what blood type the donor was&period; Most of the individual components have a shelf life of around 42 days after being extracted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Transfusions<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Transfusing a single unit of blood takes one or two hours depending on the patient’s health and the reason for the procedure&period; Some patients need up to three units of blood&comma; and that might take well over five hours&period; Nurses carefully watch over patients during the first 15 minutes of this procedure to make sure that no unusual reactions occur&period; If the patient isn’t going in for surgery&comma; then they can read&comma; use their phone&comma; or watch television for the rest of the transfusion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Much of this process depends on thousands of volunteers donating blood every single month&period; Healthy adults who are interested in donating blood should contact a local blood bank or donor organization to see if they are eligible to donate&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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