@Suiseiseki >You seem to have taken a massive imaginative leap there.
I did not. That's literally the question you ask yourself before the decision. You either donate blood or plasma and probably save someones life (Here it's basically guaranteed because in the questionnaire you either allow the hospital to use the donated blood for research and/or training, or you don't. And since this question is required by law, the chance of them misusing your blood is minimal, almost non-existent. [I don't live in a clown world like US where this is possible]), or you don't. Someone won't die, because you did not donate. In the developed world that chances of that happening are very slim.
>The breakfast is made out of proprietary ingredients and unless it's a big and nutritive breakfast, you're arguably going to end up expending more energy and nutrients regenerating the lost blood than what you get out of the breakfast.
L O L. If you are not joking, consider getting a mental health checkup. And I mean that. A healthy homo sapiens does not think like this.
>I'm not sure about specific blood usage stats, but I remember reading articles nothing that if type O- blood is available, that's preferred, as that avoids having to test the blood and match the correct type, which kind of implies that other kinds of blood are often unused until the "usage expiry" passes and is therefore wasted.
O- is used only in emergency situations and if the patient has O-. Otherwise everything else is preferred, because O- is very rare. O- is used for example in ambulances, where they have to respond to blood loss immediately and don't have time for any tests. After you get admitted to the hospital, a blood test is the first thing they do. It's not time consuming and not life threatening. And if you are going to a scheduled surgery, they will do a blood test prior to it.
Your blood will not be wasted because the "usage expiry" passed. Hospitals have systems to prevent that. The main reason why you need to register online is so they can manage how much blood they get and won't let you register if they have enough. I can even check when they used my blood and it's usually around the 3rd day from donation.
Source: My friend is a nurse in a hospital for a whole region.
>Plasma donations seem to have a more complete usage rate, although that requires a bigger needle.
Usage rate is the same. With plasma donation your blood is filtered by a machine that separates the plasma from your blood and the rest is pumped back into you. It usually requires two needles, because you need a saline IV.
>Donating disease-free blood that is to be used for good results, in exchange for a reasonable amount of money is an entirely honest and ethical practice, so I don't see any reason why you "really shouldn't".
It's an altruistic move. I don't do it for money, I do it because I want to. If you donate blood to private companies, they will try to sell it to hospitals for a markup anyway. Might as well go to the hospital, because at that point someone else still profited from you. You just get compensated with maybe 70% of that cost at a maximum.
>You clearly shouldn't donate so much blood that you become anemic, or screw up your iron levels, but that isn't hard to do.
A hospital won't even allow that. They do some test before you donate blood, so they can reject you if you have some problems. Can't say anything about private companies other than that they need to do test for diseases later by law.