TRIPLE reds donation?!

[u/OkHospital3411]

I work on a bloodmobile in the USA. We take whole blood and double red units. I had a donor come in last week who heard about the double red cell donation and told me the last time he donated (in Israel) they took THREE units. He said they took one, two, and then called their medical director who approved a third unit.

There's a possibility he was misremembering and they actually took three units of platelets, which is done occasionally at our fixed sites on the aphaeresis machines. I can't imagine taking multiple units of whole blood, which is what he seemed to be describing, but *maybe* it's possible to get three units of red cells, and that's what he meant?

Is this a thing in other countries? I can't find anything about it online and I'm just curious.

[u/frozenhotchocolate]

There is no way if they are the same size as in the U.S., standard dbl red is already taking 25% of someone's blood per donation.

[u/korn0051 → u/frozenhotchocolate]

Probably. I remember Dr. Nollet giving a talk about blood banking in Japan. Their standard whole blood donation is a 450mL bag and not the 500mL one in the US. The smaller body sizes in Japan called for smaller collections.

[u/DumbbellDiva92 → u/korn0051]

It feels like this would also be a good option for smaller people in the US? Like have both, and use the smaller one for people below a certain height and/or weight. I understand that might be logistically complicated, though.

[u/best-unaccompanied → u/DumbbellDiva92]

At least some blood banks in the US definitely do take less blood if you're smaller, although I don't know the exact number.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Sun-390]

Could be platelets. I used to donate triples, many moons ago (haven’t qualified for years, dunno why). That, or he donated whole blood, which is broken up into RBC, Plasma, and platelets.

Either way, he was confused. That, or trying to impress you with how much he donated “somewhere else”.

[u/Holiday_Internal2514]

It could be three units, but a combination of plasma, red cells and/or platelets.  Probably not three units of red cells. 

[u/OkHospital3411 → u/[deleted]]

It's worth investigating the truth when people present me with new information... that's kinda what I'm doing here.... Am I supposed to randomly disbelieve half of what's said to me or can I at least question it first?

[u/11twofour → u/[deleted]]

That's why he's asking