I have Mad Cow (AKA I can't donate blood :()

SkyHog

SkyHog

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Everything Offends Me
At work today, we had a blood drive, which I volunteered to donate at. I love donating blood, especially since my niece started needing it a few years ago due to Leukemia.

Today, I go in for the normal interview. There were a few new questions:

Nurse: "Have you spent more than 5 years cumulatively in Europe?"
Me: Ummm....lets count.....no. Almost, about 4.5 years.
Nurse:"Ok, we'll need a list of the countries you have been in."
Me: Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, etc. etc. etc.
Nurse: "How long were you in Germany?"
Me: I was born there in 1981. Left at the end of 1983.
Nurse: "So more than 6 months?"
Me: Yes....
Nurse:"You have been exposed to mad cow disease. You may not donate blood until the year 2256. Sorry."

Yeah, she actually gave me the year 2256. WTF! This has to be a misunderstanding.

Nope

http://www.redcross.org/services/biomed/0 said:
....
You are not eligible to donate if:
....
You were a member of the of the U.S. military, a civilian military employee, or a dependent of a member of the U.S. military who spent a total time of 6 months on or associated with a military base in any of the following areas during the specified time frames

* From 1980 through 1990 - Belgium, the Netherlands (Holland), or Germany
* From 1980 through 1996 - Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy or Greece.
Click to expand...

Wow.
 
Same with me. I was stationed in Europe for 10 years and I think I'll be allowed to give blood in 3215 AD. Funny thing is, Europeans countries are testing for Mad Cow (and other Mad animals) but the U.S. only "acts" ( and I do mean act) like they are testing and are not coming anywhere close to the tests that Europe performs.

I think that's why women have this insatiable urge to shop; must be Mad Women's disease! lol

LADIES - YOU KNOW I'M TOTALLY KIDDING!

Fella's & Crazy Women, Happy Holidays
 
I cannot give blood either, I have the Hep B(or C cannot remember) anti-gen in my blood stream. Seems I was exposed but not infected during either my military or law enforcement career.

Oh well...just gets me out of those annoying blood drives! :D
 
SCCutler said:
http://www.berro.com/joke/how_to_identify_a_mad_cow.htm

An early Internet-funny... 1998 or so.
Click to expand...

Ah, that's a classic! The speed that page loads reminds me of 1998 too. :rofl:

Another favorite of mine:

attachment.php
 

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Ok heres the thing. In all reality this is not funny. I was turned down to give blood because when I was 14 I had mono and with it hepititis, which only means an inflamaiton of the liver which I understand most folks with mono get. So now I can't give blood. My M.D. shook his head and told me that he thinks the Red Cross creates its own blood shortages by disqualifyng so many people.

Now get this irony about 5 years ago I underwent surgery to donate bone marrow to a little girl with Lukemia. At the time the NMDP ( National Marrow Donor Program) was affilated with the Red Cross. I could not give blood but could give marrow. Go figure perhaps because it was a life or death situaion I dunno. The NMDP has different criteria. So here is some further irony. about 8 months after the donation the girl developes some kind of infection and they need my blood ( white cells specifically) to help her fight the infection. Well because in Philly the NMDP office was located inside the Red Cross building they did all thier blood donations there. BUT since the Red Cross would not let me donate blood the initially would not let me donate the blood at their center ( Keep in mind that this little girl needed my blood specifically becuase of the marrow donation) I was told without it she dies. The NMDP had to jockey around to find a place for me to donate the freaking blood to send to this kid. Finally they " created a special place " inside the Red Cross building that would be a NMDP donation bed so I'd be considered not to have donated at the Red Cross. it took them a few weeks to work all this out. UNFREAKING BELEIVABLE!!!

Look I absolutley respect their need to keep the blood supply safe but there is some common sense missing in my opinon. Agains just my opinion. But Nicks situaiton unfortunatly ain't all that funny. Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive to it who knows.
 
AdamZ said:
Ok heres the thing. In all reality this is not funny. I was turned down to give blood because when I was 14 I had mono and with it hepititis, which only means an inflamaiton of the liver which I understand most folks with mono get. So now I can't give blood. My M.D. shook his head and told me that he thinks the Red Cross creates its own blood shortages by disqualifyng so many people.

Now get this irony about 5 years ago I underwent surgery to donate bone marrow to a little girl with Lukemia. At the time the NMDP ( National Marrow Donor Program) was affilated with the Red Cross. I could not give blood but could give marrow. Go figure perhaps because it was a life or death situaion I dunno. The NMDP has different criteria. So here is some further irony. about 8 months after the donation the girl developes some kind of infection and they need my blood ( white cells specifically) to help her fight the infection. Well because in Philly the NMDP office was located inside the Red Cross building they did all thier blood donations there. BUT since the Red Cross would not let me donate blood the initially would not let me donate the blood at their center ( Keep in mind that this little girl needed my blood specifically becuase of the marrow donation) I was told without it she dies. The NMDP had to jockey around to find a place for me to donate the freaking blood to send to this kid. Finally they " created a special place " inside the Red Cross building that would be a NMDP donation bed so I'd be considered not to have donated at the Red Cross. it took them a few weeks to work all this out. UNFREAKING BELEIVABLE!!!

Look I absolutley respect their need to keep the blood supply safe but there is some common sense missing in my opinon. Agains just my opinion. But Nicks situaiton unfortunatly ain't all that funny. Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive to it who knows.
Click to expand...

I agree. I have donated blood before, and I enjoy donating blood, knowing that I could potentially be saving a life. To be disqualified upsets me a bit.

The funny part is that they never asked if I had mono, which I have, and only a few years ago, which could also be a disqualifier. Its almost like they were focusing on a specific disqualification for this one.

Is there another place I can start donating blood, Adam?
 
AdamZ said:
Ok heres the thing. In all reality this is not funny. I was turned down to give blood because when I was 14 I had mono and with it hepititis, which only means an inflamaiton of the liver which I understand most folks with mono get. So now I can't give blood. My M.D. shook his head and told me that he thinks the Red Cross creates its own blood shortages by disqualifyng so many people.

Now get this irony about 5 years ago I underwent surgery to donate bone marrow to a little girl with Lukemia. At the time the NMDP ( National Marrow Donor Program) was affilated with the Red Cross. I could not give blood but could give marrow. Go figure perhaps because it was a life or death situaion I dunno. The NMDP has different criteria. So here is some further irony. about 8 months after the donation the girl developes some kind of infection and they need my blood ( white cells specifically) to help her fight the infection. Well because in Philly the NMDP office was located inside the Red Cross building they did all thier blood donations there. BUT since the Red Cross would not let me donate blood the initially would not let me donate the blood at their center ( Keep in mind that this little girl needed my blood specifically becuase of the marrow donation) I was told without it she dies. The NMDP had to jockey around to find a place for me to donate the freaking blood to send to this kid. Finally they " created a special place " inside the Red Cross building that would be a NMDP donation bed so I'd be considered not to have donated at the Red Cross. it took them a few weeks to work all this out. UNFREAKING BELEIVABLE!!!

Look I absolutley respect their need to keep the blood supply safe but there is some common sense missing in my opinon. Agains just my opinion. But Nicks situaiton unfortunatly ain't all that funny. Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive to it who knows.
Click to expand...

Just wait until they nationalize Health Care...........You ain't seen nothing yet! :rolleyes:
 
AdamZ said:
Ok heres the thing. In all reality this is not funny. I was turned down to give blood because when I was 14 I had mono and with it hepititis, which only means an inflamaiton of the liver which I understand most folks with mono get. So now I can't give blood. My M.D. shook his head and told me that he thinks the Red Cross creates its own blood shortages by disqualifyng so many people.

Now get this irony about 5 years ago I underwent surgery to donate bone marrow to a little girl with Lukemia. At the time the NMDP ( National Marrow Donor Program) was affilated with the Red Cross. I could not give blood but could give marrow. Go figure perhaps because it was a life or death situaion I dunno. The NMDP has different criteria. So here is some further irony. about 8 months after the donation the girl developes some kind of infection and they need my blood ( white cells specifically) to help her fight the infection. Well because in Philly the NMDP office was located inside the Red Cross building they did all thier blood donations there. BUT since the Red Cross would not let me donate blood the initially would not let me donate the blood at their center ( Keep in mind that this little girl needed my blood specifically becuase of the marrow donation) I was told without it she dies. The NMDP had to jockey around to find a place for me to donate the freaking blood to send to this kid. Finally they " created a special place " inside the Red Cross building that would be a NMDP donation bed so I'd be considered not to have donated at the Red Cross. it took them a few weeks to work all this out. UNFREAKING BELEIVABLE!!!

Look I absolutley respect their need to keep the blood supply safe but there is some common sense missing in my opinon. Agains just my opinion. But Nicks situaiton unfortunatly ain't all that funny. Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive to it who knows.
Click to expand...

Now besides that just being freaking goofy, I have to wonder why the medical team didn't just draw your blood at the hospital?:confused::confused::confused:
 
SkyHog said:
I agree. I have donated blood before, and I enjoy donating blood, knowing that I could potentially be saving a life. To be disqualified upsets me a bit.

The funny part is that they never asked if I had mono, which I have, and only a few years ago, which could also be a disqualifier. Its almost like they were focusing on a specific disqualification for this one.

Is there another place I can start donating blood, Adam?
Click to expand...

I know of None Nick but if you haven't registed as a marrow donor you can just go to the National Marrow Donor Program Website. http://www.marrow.org/ to find out how and where to get on the registry.
 
Henning said:
Now besides that just being freaking goofy, I have to wonder why the medical team didn't just draw your blood at the hospital?:confused::confused::confused:
Click to expand...

Well first off the Girl that I donated to ( then unknown to me) Was in Europe ( did not know that then) so I couldn't go to the hospital where she was and just donate. The NMDP rep was making arrangements for me to have blood drawn at the local hospital but by the time that was cooridated they figured something out at the Red Cross location. As I understand it the RC really runs the blood program in this country not local hospitals. You can donate autologous ( for your self ) blood at a hospital say for an upcomming surgery but I don't believe they are equipped to take donations to ship out.
 
We give blood when they come to town and they ask these same 100 questions most of which raise the eyebrows, in a shocking sort of way for a country bumpkin, "have you ever paid for....." "have you ever had s..... with a m.." etc Ahhg! And I thought the needle stick was going to be painful!
 
Well Scott, you having Mad Cow (BSE) would explain a lot!:rofl::rofl:

My dad and me have the same issue having lived in Germany until 1990. It really ****es my dad off because he gave blood regularly for most of his life until the Red Cross put in the Mad Cow restriction.
 
So just out of curiosity, integrity aside, what's the penalty if you answer "no" to the magic question?
 
You want really stupid, the hospital wouldn't let my wife donate blood to herself in case she needed it during an upcoming surgury.
 
There are other blood bank agencies beside the American Red Cross. These may or may not have different rules for who qualifies as a donor. For instance, United Blood Services does not make mention of time in Europe on their list. See http://www.unitedbloodservices.org

Not every blood agency has a presence in every community, but for Nick it would be worth a call to UBS as they have several New Mexico outlets.



Rotor&Wing said:
Just wait until they nationalize Health Care...........You ain't seen nothing yet! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

This is a moronic comment that has nothing to do with the issue at hand. You do know that the American Red Cross is not a government agency but is a private charity? If it were a government agency, then you as citizen would have some control over its policies through your elected officials. Just as you do with Medicare, our incredibly popular national health insurance program, which I suppose you'll decline if or when you're eligible.

Jon
 
4CornerFlyer said:
This is a moronic comment that has nothing to do with the issue at hand. You do know that the American Red Cross is not a government agency but is a private charity? If it were a government agency, then you as citizen would have some control over its policies through your elected official. Just as you do with Medicare, our incredibly popular national health insurance program, which I suppose you'll decline if or when you're eligible.

Jon
Click to expand...

How about finding a sense of humor,OK? My comment was meant to be tongue in cheek about the bureaucracy the original poster endured trying to donate blood. Since you don't get it, let me s-l-o-w-l-y explain it to you:

It's bad enough to put up with the Red Cross bureaucracy, now just imagine what it will be like once the Federal government gets involved with the proposed National Healthcare that many politicians are pushing.

See, it's not that difficult.:rolleyes:
 
I get it. I guess I just don't hear the loud clamor from the public to get out of Medicare, Tricare, the VA and other health coverage agencies of the federal government. Maybe it's just in my corner of the country that people despise their privately-owned for-profit HMOs and their Kafkaesque rules designed to do only one thing: save the company's money by NOT paying for your care.

I agree with you that the Red Cross can function as an inflexible bureaucracy. In the day of making public policy by Oprah, that's what you get. Just suppose someone gets Mad Cow from a blood transfusion, then goes on Oprah to bad-mouth the Red Cross. The organization totally depends on good publicity, and one case can destroy them. If the United States provided the blood service, you as a citizen would have some control over its policies, as the US has the ability to coerce its "donors." You're actually making a good argument for taking the blood services out fo the private sector.

And I've got a hell of a sense of humor. Except when it comes to dealing with private, for-profit insurance companies, which is something I do every day, and it gets old very quickly.

Jon
 
Ok opinions heard from both lets not push this so far as to make the politics push it to SZ. thanks
 
4CornerFlyer said:
I get it. I guess I just don't hear the loud clamor from the public to get out of Medicare, Tricare, the VA and other health coverage agencies of the federal government.
Jon
Click to expand...

I remember having a healthcare discussion with an older guy who was very against a taxpayer funded healthcare system. I asked him who he got his coverage through, "I go to the VA"...:frown2:"So, it's okay for you to get taxpayer funded healthcare but not me?" He wasn't quite sure how to answer that. Reality is we have taxpayer funded healthcare administrated at the County level. What we don't have is efficient taxpayer funded healthcare in most places. Some counties have wised up and fund community clinics for general primary care issues which is a lot more efficient and cost effective than using the emergency rooms. Even private hospitals fund quite a bit due to the IMTALA <sp?> laws since they can't turn them down, and just add it into the billing for insured patients, or write it off their taxes which is defacto taxpayer funding. You can argue against public healthcare, but it's a useless argument. Better to figure out how to best spend the money that the system uses anyway to get the most out of it rather than the least.
 
I have never been eligible to donate blood. Fortunately, I am healthy enough I haven't needed to receive blood either, so the account is even.
 
As far as reception, you CAN donate to yourself on notification that you're about to undergo surgery (Then you can claim to be a donor).

Here, I've been denied donations to the general population because of treatment for cancer. Being 11 years post-op, I'm finally in a position where I can begin donating. But WAIT!! I've spent qualifying time in Portugal, Greece, and Germany -- mid 70's thru early 80's -- so I'm now back to being banned! :(
 
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In my non-educated opinion, this whole issue seems overblown. I haven't been able to give blood either because I was in Europe for a couple of years. But...really? Because there was mad cow disease in Europe for a while, everybody from there is now ineligible to donate? It's not like people in Europe, overall, are less healthy.

By that logic, we shouldn't allow people from any country to donate. I'm sure all of those countries have seen mad cow or a similar disease at some point. Silly.

-Felix
 
Not to mention that there has been mad cow in this country. Guess we're all ineligible.

FWIW, the RC won't take my blood due to being diabetic.
 
Here's a link to what our local blood bank requires. Mad cow disease is at the bottom of the list. I've only donated blood once, years ago, but I had a bad reaction to it. I couldn't stay awake, which was a problem because I was driving. In retrospect I may have been too close to their minimum weight at that time. I think they should adjust the volume they take according to your weight. My current employer also requires 72 hours between donating and flying which people might take into consideration beforehand.
 
4CornerFlyer said:
I get it. I guess I just don't hear the loud clamor from the public to get out of Medicare, Tricare, the VA and other health coverage agencies of the federal government.
Click to expand...

Of course not. People today WANT things, and if the government can provide semi-crappy service paid for by "someone else" (i.e. the evil rich) so much the better.
 
I donated for 12 years straight. One year, they asked for my SSN. I told them they could have my blood(literally), but I'll pass on giving the SSN. Suddenly, my blood wasn't suitable.

Cya!
 
This all reminds me that I have only donated blood once, like a bazillion years ago. Also reminds me they may not have much use for my blood- I don't recall the type designation, but they told me it's the one that is compatible with all types as a recipient, but can only donate to the same type. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
 
rottydaddy said:
This all reminds me that I have only donated blood once, like a bazillion years ago. Also reminds me they may not have much use for my blood- I don't recall the type designation, but they told me it's the one that is compatible with all types as a recipient, but can only donate to the same type. Anybody know what I'm talking about?
Click to expand...

Type AB. Universal recipient. Good to be (for you).
 
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