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Canadian Blood Services On April 9, 2002, the Canadian Blood Services held an open house;
for media and the public. The CBS had asked our Blood donor committee to
participate on this day. The committee asked the Ontario Mason The questions were then brought before the magazine committee and it was agreed that we would have some one attend and report on the activities. As they needed a volunteer who had not previously donated blood, the question was asked of those at the meeting, had anyone not donated before? R.W. Bro. Bill Thompson said that he had not donated before but would be able to do so at that time. Upon arrival that day, Bill filled in the questionaire that all first donators are required to do. They then took him into a small room where another more personal form is filled out. The nature of the questions are to eliminate candidates that may not be suitable for donating. A blood pressure test was then administered to ensure that there would be no side effects from the process. After being given the green light to go ahead, he was lead over to an area where all the donations are collected. There is series of "lazy boy" style chairs to sit in. The staff makes everyone very comfortable. The nurse them came and rolled up Bill’s shirt sleeve in preparation for taking the blood, not being to fond of needle, you can see Bill is eagerly awaiting the needle. He assured us after, that in fact, it did not hurt at all. (What a big Baby!) Juice and cookies were made available after for those that had donated. Afterward, the staff conducted a tour of the facilities. They showed everyone the various steps that the blood goes through before it is given out to the hospitals and clinics. Canadian Blood Services (CBS) is responsible for recruiting blood and bone marrow donors as well as collecting blood, plasma, and platelets at 40 permanent locations and more than 10,000 mobile clinics annually. CBS collects whole blood. Whole blood is comprised of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma. Some donations are held and transfused as whole blood, others are processed to separate red blood cells and plasma. All whole blood donations undergo leukoreduction, a process whereby white blood cells are removed. White blood cells often carry viruses and bacteria that can be detrimental to the recovery of the recipient. Some donors donate plasma through a process called plasmapheresis.
The donor’s blood is processed through an apheresis machine that extracts
only the plasma and returns the rest of the blood to the donor. Platelets can be donated through a process called plateletpheresis. The donor’s blood is processed through an apheresis machine, much like in a plasma donation. In this case, only the platelets are collected and the rest of the blood is returned to the donor. All main CBS donor clinics have a plateletpheresis program. The plateletpheresis programs differ from location to location, if you are interested in becoming a platelet donor, please call 1 888 2 DONATE (1 888 236-6283) during regular business hours and select option "1" from the automated voice system to speak to a member of their medical staff. |
Every minute of every day, someone in Canada needs blood. Much of the blood that is transfused every year is done under emergency or trauma situations. Hundreds of thousands of people each year receive blood components or blood products following accidents, during surgery or for cancer treatments, burn therapy, hemophilia and other blood-related diseases. • The average amount of blood in
one person • There are approximately 450 ml of blood in a unit • On average, 4.6 units of blood are required per patient • Each year CBS collects approximately • Each year CBS collects almost 38,000 units • Each year CBS collects approximately IDENTIFICATION AGE WEIGHT FREQUENCY OF DONATION HEALTH SCREENING Donating blood does not put you at risk of disease. All needles are sterile, used only once and discarded. The usual blood collection - a "unit" - is about half a litre, or one pint. Your body soon replaces all the blood you donate. The Grand Lodge Blood Donors Committee reports that we have donated over 29,300 units. This is due to the tremendous efforts of many people, especially at the lodge and district level. A recent report from CBS indicates that the need for blood increases by 8% each year and donations increase by only 4%. This year our donations were up by 21%. Again this year, Ontario District led the province with 3,316 donations. Algoma District was second at 3,231. Although they were close, they achieved this by two different methods. Ontario District gets their numbers by sponsoring many Blood Donor Clinics, while Algoma District gets theirs from a Community Plasma Challenge. Try beating them this year! Several districts had large increases over their totals last year and are to be congratulated. Keep up the good work! |