wrote in message ...

On Wed, 14 Dec 2016 10:19:12 -0000, "Ophelia" >
wrote:

>"graham" wrote in message news >
>On 12/13/2016 9:16 AM, wrote:
>> On Tue, 13 Dec 2016 09:20:14 -0500, Dave Smith
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> On 2016-12-13 4:46 AM, dsi1 wrote:
>>>
>>>> My son donates blood. I did not know about this until recently. It
>>>> seems that his goal is to reach a gallon of blood in total. I'm not
>>>> sure why he does it or how he got into it but it speaks highly of his
>>>> character.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I used to give blood regularly. Canada Blood Services used to run
>>> clinics locally and they had a full time office in a nearby city. It
>>> got to be a pain in the neck because they wanted you to book
>>> appointments, fill our long questionnaires and then interview you. I
>>> know there is good reason for it, but it is still a PITA. The last
>>> time I was in there did the questionnaire and was going through the
>>> interview when I remarked on a new question. They wanted to know if
>>> donors had ever worked with monkeys. She looked at my answer to that one
>>> and told me I can't give blood.
>>>
>>>
>>> She didn't know what the problem was but I went on line to check out
>>> out. It seems that monkeys sometimes carry a retrovirus called Simian
>>> Foamy Virus. They don't know a heck of a lot about it. Infected animals
>>> do not exhibit any symptoms and there is no approved test for it for
>>> blood donations. According to the Health Canada site, people who have
>>> worked with primates tend to give blood more often than most of the
>>> population, and I have no idea how they could even gather that sort of
>>> information.
>>>
>>> So.... I used to give month every two months, but now they don't want my
>>> blood.
>>
>> When the Red Cross stopped doing it and it all became CBS they
>> cavilled over the length of time I was going over to the UK. In the
>> end I told them put me on the registry for bone marrow (in case
>> someone was desperate enough to 'risk' my blood) and stick it. They
>> did not handle things well.
>>
>> I suspect the simian thing is the worry about ebola which I believe
>> starts with monkey populations.
>>
>The last time I gave blood was 19 years ago last month, in preparation
>for my own surgery. I had been giving regularly but a) all my trips to
>the UK subsequently would have disqualified me and b) the reason for the
>surgery also stopped me.
>====================
>
>I am not allowed to give blood now because of all the meds I need.
>
>We are carrying organ donation cards though so we will still be useful one
>day)

It's important for them to know you will give anything - they now
often take tendons and skin, I can't think things like my heart would
be worth while anymore. They are talking here of making it an 'opt
out' system as opposed to 'opt in' - IOW unless you signed you were
not willing, it will be assumed you were.

========================

That is a good idea.



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