Big Idea: Blood Transfusions
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- The idea of putting blood into a person was a radical one when it was first attempted 350 years ago, but today, more than 15 million pints of blood are donated each year in the U.S. to be used in transfusions to over 5 million patients. Hank tells you the strange story of how blood transfusions got their start in medicine.
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I've donated blood four times. The last time the Red Cross called me about donating they told me that my donations helped save twelve people. I couldn't help but feel at least a little proud of myself when I heard that.
+IgnemFeram01 Deservedly so.
IgnemFeram01 I received 4 units of blood when I was 16, so I’m alive because of great people like you!!! Thanks :)
Are you 0 negative?
@@wooltattoo They can use all types! Some types they may want to get platelets, or plasma, or red blood cells. I've donated platelets by apheresis, they run the blood through a machine that removes platelets and puts the rest back; since you build platelets faster than red cells, you can donate platelets more often!
Blood transfusion WW2 veteran
Yay! My brother literally couldn't live without weekly transfusions so donating really means a lot to me (and him!!)
I saw that this was uploaded, and I was in shock. I just got two units of O+ blood tuesday in the ER due to Anemia. Thank you all that donate. You helped save my life. :) I'm proud of my father, since he donates because he's a rare blood type... A-. If you are a healthy candidate, I urge you to donate every so often! If I could thank my donors personally, I would. So i'll just thank EVERYONE that donates! :)
I thank both of you so very much I have sickle cell disease and your unsickled blood helps me immensely with the pain.
I'm gay with O + blood. Looks like I'll have to keep it all to myself...
+oshidonimlop Actually, people with O blood can give it to virtually anyone. It's the people who have AB or AB+ who would not be able to donate to many others.
Sammy Dreemurr It's an old concept which is wrong. For blood transfusion, the blood samples must be of the same group and same Rh-factor and some other pigments must match.
I'm sorry. I laughed when he said refill.
Expense of dogs? Taking ale, wine and opium intravenously is my Friday night.
Every time we do a subtopic in my Biology class, and I somehow end up back on TH-cam to learn about it, you've recently covered it and just wow lol
Last time I was in the hospital. I received 8 transfusions. Thankfully all went according to plan.
My Dad has been donating blood every year since he was about 20 - he is now 51. When he was 13 he was in car crash which ended up with him needing a bunch of blood transfusions. He donates every time there is a blood van in our area. My dad is amazing. I on the other hand am super afraid of needles and faint or vomit at the mere concept. I hope to one day be phobia free so I can be as awesome as my dad, and you know - faint and vomit less, 'cause that'd be nice.
I would actually love to donate blood. Unfortunately, even though I've shown no signs of anything wrong, have only ever had two sexual partners, and for the past 4 years it has been only one of those two, I'm immediately disqualified. Can anyone guess why?
Yeah. Completely fair to myself and anyone else that needs blood. But anyone else who has had sexual relations with 20 different people of the opposite gender within the past week is fine. Totally a legitimate policy.
what what??
+Fjolltzu Gay people can't donate blood.
supermarble94 ohh yeah i know that but you kinda left me wondering haha :D Is it like that everywhere? Where are you from?
+Fjolltzu Well the only place I know of that you can donate blood in the US is the Red Cross and that's their policy. If a man has had homosexual sex within the past 6 months (or something like that) he can't donate blood. Regardless of the circumstances.
supermarble94 in Finland you cant ever donate blood if you have had sex with a man even if its been years if i understood it correctly
i do, i gave blood for the first time back in april and found out i'm O+. it really wasn't that terrible of a process. the needle prick to test my blood for iron hurt more than that huge needle they use to get the blood out of me! i suggest if you are able to donate to do it at least once, it's a good feeling knowing you're helping to save someone's life!
If sticking a needle into my arm could save someone's life, I may do it.
Yeah it saves tons of lifes! :D Do it man and you can be sure you saved somebody!
Yay! As a blood banker, I always love seeing videos like this to educate the masses about blood transfusions. There are so many people who have so much wrong information, it makes getting donors and convincing patients of the safety of it difficult.
AB+ is the universal recipient
I'm AB-
So close
+Ham You are the universal donor for plasma. Donating it makes you a hero as it is almost as valuable as O- cells. There should be plenty of A- cells available for you if you ever need any.
I've donated blood once. I only felt pain for a few seconds when they put the needle in, and the donation put me in a good mood for a long while.
I would donate if I didn't have a paralyzing fear of needles :(
I would rather donate my hair to one of those companies that make wigs for children who lost their hair.
Donating your hair is a great thing to do! I grew out my hair for 5 years and donated 23". Some little girl is going to have a kick ass curly wig
why?
Seth Worth It's called a phobia. look it up.
yeah i know,im actually asking the gentleman with the extremely good grammar why "both is bulls*it"
Seth Worth target your replies.
All good questions! Blood shortages do happen in the US. Mostly in the summer because schools are out and not hosting blood drives. Also around the holidays because people are just busy with other things, and whenever a big storm disrupts the lives of millions of people.
All the blood components and types are used and needed, I think red cells are used the most. Most donations are whole blood which is later separated, but the preferred donation method depends on blood type.Plasma is best for AB.
i want dog blood so i can bark better
+shem yhaza That's not how it works.
+gunguy100 Good point. It might make them bite.
shem yhaza wtf is wrong with u
You could try drinking a lot both before and after the donation. It also helps if you rest on the bed for a while after the donation. I've donated blood once and I didn't experience any adverse effects besides thirst, and it may have helped that I followed these instructions.
I'm happy you still want to try donating blood. It really put me in a good mood and it's an easy way to help some anonymous person.
My Dad also gave blood and has received recognition for having done so 50 times! He now gives platelets, a process which involves giving himself a tranfusion from himself (Intrafusion?).
me too. glad to have you back Hank! :D
Refilling the little dog with the big one. Hahaha. I don't know why that caught me so funny.
I´m gonna give blood next week, as soon as my 2 month recovery break between donations ist over!
this is the way I always do it.
Same here! They call/email me so often! It's also really weird when the person sticking the needle in my arm tells me I have nice veins.
You should look into donating double-units of red blood cells or platelets by apheresis. They can't change the frequency rules for you, but you may have a higher red blood cell count than average, which will allow you to give more in one visit (spaced further apart to allow for cell replacement). And platelets can be donated much more frequently (as often as every 10 days), if you are a viable platelet donor. You can give double or even triple units at once if your count is high enough.
Coconut water was (allegedly) used as a substitute for blood plasma in emergency transfusions during WWll. Coconut water is sterile until the coconut is opened, and it apparently mixes relatively okay with blood, despite some shortcomings. Sucks if the patient has a coconut allergy though.
It's really really fine! It stings a little but no where near as much as you expect and it's over quick (plus they give you cookies). Just look away if you think the site might worry you. However, I wouldn't recommend donating platelets as that is far more stressful.
it was recommended (rather rudely) that I shouldn't donate blood anymore because I'm afraid of needles and have small veins so I was "too much trouble" for the phlebotomists. I had to drink a TON of water and since that flushed some of the iron out of my system I had to take multivitamins for about a week before donating. AND THEN it took 45 minutes, a blood pressure cuff and several needle adjustments to just get a pint of blood out of me. With all that I donated 3 times in high school.
I used to donate every 3 months until the local blood bank left town, Now I have to wait until they do a local blood drive. I don't have a lot of time to volunteer, so this is my contribution.
Yikes!! Make sure you call the blood bank to let them know whenever you have complications like that, especially if you continue to feel sick. And mention it when you go in again--they may recommend you remain under observation for longer, or employ a few tricks that can help you not have a reaction.
If it was your first time giving blood, it may have been an isolated incident. I had a near-blackout my first time donating, but have never experienced anything like it since.
I've had some bad experiences donating blood, my first time the nurse couldn't find my vein and stabbed me repeatedly, and the second time I fainted from blood loss and couldn't sit up for at least an hour without having to barf. But there will be another donation event at my school in April, and I'm signing up for it because my few moments of discomfort are nothing compared to the suffering of the person who receives the blood I donate, and I truly hope it helps them.
Gosh Hank you're absolutely wonderful.
It can be done using enzymes produced by bacteria. I haven't heard anything about it in a while, so I don't think it's been approved anywhere for use yet, but it does work. There are enzymes that will latch on to the A and B type antigens and remove them, don't think they've found one yet for Rh.
So good to have you back Hank, hope you enjoyed your vacation. :D
I donated blood once. I had an adrenal reaction to what my body perceived as stress. I fainted and shook violently for a few minutes.
All the time. I can't be the only one who looks up at the sky and sees how amazing we are when airplanes fly over us. Or how readily available and clean food is. Same with bathrooms.
wow. great video. learnt so much about the history of blood transfusions. more videos in this sort of format, kinda like quick information sessions.
At the time that law was made we did not have technology able to screen blood and AIDS was being a major problem. Now we can prevent that, but laws are just really hard to get rid of.
I'm O neg, and I really want to donate blood more often than I do but I have terrible skittishness of needles. Whenever I've given blood or have had it taken for testing it's hurt quite a lot--I would hope that people who do this so often would be able to do it without quite so much pain. I need to find some venue to donate with people that can put a needle in properly.
There are blood transfusions as well as plasma. One of my friends actually gets paid for the plasma she donates every so often. Obviously, you need to meet health criteria but yes, donations of either are welcomed and very much needed in hospitals.
Some people can't because of various chronic diseases. But I do agree, it is important to donate from time to time :)
Okay, but that would be in other languages. In English it is O, the letter. Null certainly makes sense, but that's not what we say.
Incidentally, in genetics, it's usually capital I with a superscript of A or B for the dominant alleles (A and B being codominant) and lowercase i for recessive, with ii indicating type O blood. Sometimes A, B, and - are used as shorthand. The dash is basically the same as null. I'm not entirely certain why we say O. It's kind of silly, when you think about it.
As a cancer patient myself I know how important blood donations are. So far I've had two transfusions after operations. Please give blood. X
I won't give blood anymore after a horrible first experience where I didn't have enough calcium in my body and for about 4 days after I couldn't control my muscles properly. But props to anyone who can and does!
While I would agree under different circumstances, my guess would be that the units mentioned in this video are the original (maybe even outdated) units used at the time of the experiments.
Same here. I had a cancer and therefore a chemo therapy. Now I can't donate blood ever again.
I donated blood once for an old teacher of mine who'd been hospitalized; it was alright. Answered a bunch of questions, had a small sample taken, and then loafed on a chair for a while while the blood was actually being drawn. Also, the hospital gave me some snacks.
I've been giving blood for a year and a half, and I've had all good experiences. The ladies that do it where I go are soooooo nice. I've never had trouble, even though I have bad veins. I mean, it feels a little weird, but what's feeling weird when it can save someone's life?
Okay, I wasn't sure if that's what you meant. Thanks for clearing it up.
I did not know that I only listed Cleaning supplies.
Why overhead or overhead expense is your concern; an ongoing expense of operating a business; it is also known as an "operating expense". Examples include rent, gas, electricity, and wages. The term overhead is usually used when grouping expenses that are necessary to the continued functioning of the business but CANNOT BE IMMEDIATELY associated with the products or services being offered
E-rooms are for emergencies, not for appointments.
If you're in the US, even more reason to donate since you get paid! Here in the UK it's voluntary.
I gave blood thrice, and now owe my life to several people via 3 blood transfusions after suffering a spontaneous heamoneumothorax (Sciencey for collapsed lung due to burst blood vessel in cavity). It's funny to think of the potential of getting my own blood back! Sadly this means I can no longer give blood for reasons I do not fully understand, but I'm glad to have done my bit.
More specifically the red bone marrow. Blood production mostly takes place in flat bones and the rounded ends of long bones.
I donated yesterday for the first time! I feel so good about myself.
As soon as I possibly could donate, I did, and have done ever since :)
I'm the coveted type o negative and I refuse to donate my blood. This is because of how blood is managed in this country. We give our blood, free of charge to nonprofit companies (nonprofit only because of tax reasons; they still mange to pay their c suite officers hundreds of thousands of dollars per year while the phlebotomist doing the work are often volunteers or needing credits to maintain their certification or paid little above minimum wage) that turn around and charge what the market supports not the cost to collect and store the blood which of course makes blood exorbitantly expensive. Since blood has a 21day shelf life there is a good chance that the blood you give will not even go to your community unless you live in a big metro area. On top of that, during times of crisis, when people are most compelled to donate, many pints end up being tossed because these same top heavy blood banks don't want to invest in better travel methods and arrangements with other companies and hospitals. The bureaucracy is more important then the blood cells you painfully pumped through those ridiculous harpoons they use to collect. This is all kept on the downlow because if people realized the amount of money sloshing around in blood and how inefficient the system was the donation rates would plummet and of course that's bad for everyone. I'm not giving up my precious blood so some rich plutocrat can get richer off my body parts for a t-shirt or social goodwill. That won't put food on my table of a roof over my head. If blood is so important then the system needs to properly compensate those providing it. Since hospitals charge anywhere from $300 to $500 per pint I think a deal where someone goes to their local hospital and donates against their need or the needs of their family for future use could work and be more fair to the donors. Really, though there needs to be more investment and academic attention to creating a synthetic substitute or blood farms that don't involve milking and bilking people.
Note* this is a generalization, not a blanket statement. I'm sure there are many good people involved in blood drives and donations but as with most healthcare related expenses there are snakes looking to exploit any area of low transparency and high profit potential. Health care costs are so high for such bad returns it's obvious there are many such snakes in the system.
I advocate community blood centers over the national ones as they take care of their area first and if they have extra, then send it out of the area where it is needed. Technically blood agencies don't charge for the blood. They charge for the supplies, lab tests, personnel costs, etc. but not the tissue itself. This is expensive and cost ~$200 per unit of RBCs. People cannot be paid (by law) for donating in the US since that increases the risk of disease or other complications. These days RBCs can have a shelf life of up to 42 days.
There have been many attempts to create synthetic blood. All have been failures. There is new interest in using stem cells to grow it. So far each unit costs ~$300K, but it should come down in price. The term is "Blood Pharming" if you want to Google it for more specifics. I think it will take at least 10 years to bring it to market. Even if we had that, we still need donations. There is no substitute for platelets, white cells and plasma. We have recombinant clotting factors (nonhuman sourced) but some people become allergic to them so they still need it from the tap. I grew stem cells in the late 90's. My small cultures cost about $4,000 for each batch which wouldn't produce one tsp of blood cells. The technology is possible and is being pursued. However it will likely cost much more than donated blood. Then we will pine for the old donor centers.
Blood is a drug that comes from altruistic people. I donate whenever I can. I encourage others to do the same for their community. It is a community resource. People suffer and die without it. Newborn babies and immunocompromised people have additional requirements for the blood they use (such as CMV-negative). It is hard to find these donors. Donating blood also has a few beneficial side effects. It makes your average RBCs younger which means they work better. A friend of mine would time his donations with upcoming marathons. Blood agencies aren't the evil corporate monster some believe. (Disclaimer: I ran a donor center in the military and have been out of the business for over a decade. I have no personal benefit from defending this position.)
I wouldn’t be alive if 4 kind people hadn’t donated their blood. I would HAPPILY donate as often as possible but with my blood disease I am not allowed. I wish I could give back, but I can’t
Plus, I'm fairly sure donated blood is measured in pints, at least here in the US. We donate pints at a time. If it helps, 1 pint ~ 500mL.
On the contrary, your blood could be quite valuable to another AB+ because it is so rare. And your plasma can be used for anyone, regardless of type. Plasma is used to treat a variety of conditions and is never, never useless.
Oh god, watching this made me feel my blood.
Consider the fact that those were the units used in that time. You can always go and see how much an ounce or a pint is.
I think it is because the cold gas will keep cooling the hole which it came out from until all the gas is leaked, and by then the own surface of the container will be cold enough to freeze the water around it
I love donating blood because I get to help people and it doesn't even cost me anything literally I don't even miss it.
I tried to give blood once but I was turned away because they said my blood vessels were too small. It was really disappointing since I'd been wanting to donate blood for years and I'm still tempted to try and find out if there's another way I can donate blood.
My mom donated blood and for a whole year she suffered severe problems including anemia all due to her physiology. So being related I would probably not want to donate blood seeing how it could really fuck me up.
***** Even if I'm not anemic I probably will never donate blood though, I faint at the sight of it. XD
Alanna Nikol Are you a girl? I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just curious how you handle periods. Sorry if it's too personal
SidneyIam
I doubt any girl faints when they see that, it's not an injury.
Alanna Nikol Oh okay, I thought blood in general not injury-related blood.
+Seal Girl They check your iron before donating to make sure it won't hurt you. The donation shouldn't have been the primary contributor to your mom's condition. Another way to donate is by apheresis. I donate about 12 units of platelets at a time but get to keep my red cells.
I do know they test it anyway, and I do know there are people who are infected and don't know about it.
But being able to eliminate the people who do know and answer truthfully, still reduces costs, and increases efficiency.
i'm actually donating this friday, as a part of my schools blood drive.
O negative. Blood transfusions saved my life a few years ago and it scared me that this type is so strange ... I can donate to all, but can only receive from one ... i'm not sure if I'm able to donate at all since the transfusion, I'm a little hazy on the rules, but I would gladly donate if I could! This really does help people.
Really I totally didn't know this already! It's not like 40+ people have filled up my email with notifications about WHY there's a ban.
They have to take the same amount from each person. You can handle it, but someone smaller may have problems. Also they can't mix blood from two people into one bag for safety reasons. As to why you can't donate 2 units, think of it like this:
You can probably have 2 drinks in one hour (about a 1.6 BAC or twice the legal limit in the US) with little to effect, but if you were to have 4 drinks (about 2.4 BAC or 4 times the limit) you're likely to need supervision.
Oh! Didn't know that. Just looked it up on Red Cross, thanks for the tip
Yay for you, and for your dad! Everyone who can should donate, ESPECIALLY negative types (like your dad), since we can give to our corresponding positives in a pinch, but if we get RH positive blood, it is big trouble.
Thank you, but the last thing I heard was that it is indefinite. I recieved a very nice certificate from the give blood foundation thanking me for my 3 pints.
My apologies about the misunderstanding over payment.
Indeed, I think a little while in the future when medical technology improves this will become a lot easier. For the moment though I'm done with blood donations.
Pints is pretty standard as the unit of measurement of blood donations.
Those aren't lame excuses! If you are really really scared, don't force yourself, but you might be surprised how not-scary donating blood can be! I would recommend 1) not looking at the needle, especially when the technician is putting it in your arm (which only takes a second), and 2) letting the tech know you are nervous upfront. Most are very friendly and will chat with you to distract you and keep you calm. Just focus on trusting their professional skills and you may not feel panicky at all!
Hi Hank, i'm happy to see you've comeback.
Although decimal really doesn't make sense, I agree with your general sentiment.
Pharm companies are mostly commercially driven, unlike (most) medical facilities. Even if they're paying for plasma, they're still gaining a profit. My guess for why donations for transfusions are illegal is to prevent blood from becoming a commodity. There'd be incentive for donation clinics to boost profit margins by dangerously reducing the cost/safety of their donation/handling processes, and charity hospitals would be forced to purchase cheaper, potentially unsafe blood.
I'm constantly bombarded with adverts saying "give blood, Give Blood, GIVE BLOOOOOOOOOOOODD!!!" but they never state where, when or how one donates the delicious red goodness. I would if a could and I probably.
+Lokitty Laufeyson - Google blood donor center for your zip code and find one nearby. Then call them. If it isn't convenient, ask if anyone else collects blood in that area.
I gave blood last week and they told me I have small, deep veins. It was fine though; didn't really hurt (it just felt weird and uncomfortable). I just told myself that any pain or fear I had was nothing compared to an ill person who desperately needs blood to survive.
u never mentioned that, mediacl prcatice has progressed now that we dont really need to transufe blood. and the body recoperates a LOT faster and better when transfusions are not given
woohoo! thanks for spreading the word, Hank! I donate every 12 weeks :) give blood, save lives!
Welcome back, Hank! Wow, it seems obvious that people didn't always know the purpose of blood, but for some reason, it never occurred to me. The history of the study of blood was really interesting!
a few weeks ago after donating blood I watched one of your videos and suggested a video on blood types I didn't expect to actually see it O_O
It really does not hurt. You do not have to look at the needle. You don't even feel it once it is in. They will work to find as good vein.
I love his videos. This one is simply brilliant. Glad he came back.
Very much appreciated, but I would find it even more interesting to see a more controversial video on blood transfusions. Possible unheard-of long-term effects and the latest studies of the patient blood management movement come to mind.
I live in the US and I've never heard of anyone being paid to donate blood. However, we do get paid for giving plasma - slightly different.
A and B have different protteins (AB has both, as well as having the perk of taking any blood), and O has no blood and can donate to anybody
Before the screening process, that would be a valid concern, but all blood is screened beforehand for diseases like typical STDs before it is put into the blood banks.
My understanding is that the presence of hep antibodies is an indication that there may be other undesirables lurking in a person's blood. In other words, the kinds of behaviors that expose people to Hep B and C are likely to expose them to other blood-borne/sexually-transmitted diseases. They started doing this during the start of the AIDS epidemic. At the time, they lacked a test for HIV, so they tested for hep on the assumption that people with HIV were likely to have been exposed to hep.
Someone else mentioned at some point that it is apparently called zero in some other countries, which I was unaware of. In the US, it's O, the letter. Usually scientific terms don't vary that much from country to country, so I'm not really sure why that one does.
I wasn't intentionally being US-centric, and from an international perspective I was technically (partially) wrong, but...what can you do?
It is O in most places, however, according to Wikipedia.
Also, while the quality could be regulated by hospitals, govt, or a separate organization, it would be very difficult to hold clinics liable for unsafe donation procedures. Some hypodermically transmitted viruses (like HIV) can remain dormant/unnoticed for years after which it'd be impossible to conclusively trace, especially with transmission of many of the same viruses also possible through private actions, like sex, which a legitimate record of would be impossible (and unethical) to maintain.
Can you do an episode on blood types? Like how they were discovered where they evolved from and why people attribute personality to them for some reason?
Blood transfusion is a behind the times medical technique. There are entire bloodless hospitals in the US and elsewhere that know of the benefits of no-blood procedures even in the most complex medical cases. The US Military has also instituted a no-blood medical treatment program. There are doctors who feel not using blood is the better treatment and patients who actually ask for no blood treatments because they've done responsible research.
Thank you! This is something I'd heard about, but stupidly never looked up. I'd heard it was CJD, knew mad cow disease was CJD, but assumed it was something different for some reason.
There's a Wikiipedia article about animal blood types. Look for an article titled "Blood_type non-human" to learn that it's MUCH more complex that you might think. Dogs have 13 groups and equines have 10. Amazing.
At my high school if you're 18 you can donate whenever they have a station set up
My mom when my little sister was born they mest up the stitching of her stomach and she lost 12 pints of blood (they kept putting more in but she just kept bleeding) the anesthesia wore off and she was actually awake hearing the doctors saying stuff like "get a mop!"
Whole blood has a shelf life of about 6 weeks, plasma can be stored for a long time. But putting it on ice for months to test it later wouldn't help to better identify infections because the tests look for the virus and antibodies made to fight the virus. Once the blood is out of circulation and stored, the virus replication and antibody production will slow or stop, so testing older stored blood wouldn't be any more accurate than testing it fresh.