• JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    6 hours ago

    To further this, the negative and positive value also matters. Someone with a negative type can only take negative blood, whereas a positive type can accept both.

    Here's a little chart:

    Source

    I wish it were easier to get people to donate. Just this morning I heard a radio advertisement for the blood service that included the line ‘please schedule and attend an appointment’, which seems wild that so many people book a time then don’t show up.

    • Redjard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 hours ago

      That chart is overcomplicated.
      There are 3 independent markers. A, B, and +.
      Blood can have A or not, B or not, and + or not. When the body doesn’t have the marker, it will react to the marker.

      So when you have notA, and get A blood, you will have a reaction.
      notA blood works for everyone, A blood only for A people. A people can take any blood, notA people only notA blood.

      Now do this independently for the 3 markers. AB+ people have all markers so can take any combination. notAnotBnot+ people make blood everyone can take, since there are no markers, but they can’t take any other blood with any markers.

      Unfortunately we call not+ -, notAnotB O, notAB B, and AnotB A. So + we invert properly but for A and B we omit them and instead of emptystring when no marker is present we invent O, presumably for 0 markers. This obfuscates the pattern.

    • FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      5 hours ago

      ‘please schedule and attend an appointment’, which seems wild that so many people book a time then don’t show up.

      Yeah that’s fucked up.

      I’m surprised to hear that america has a shortage of donors because i heard that the UK buys blood from America due to our own shortage of donors.

      • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        4 hours ago

        From the United States perspective, less blood in reserve drives up prices for the population, so it seems to jive with healthcare as a whole there. I know Canada was buying plasma from them as well in the before times, but I’m not sure about that any more.

        Several new plasma donation clinics have opened up to collect from people with more common blood types. It’s interesting to hear the UK ships blood in from the west at all. I would have figured there would be closer options available. Unless Brexit also made that more difficult too.

        I understand the necessity of shipping blood around, but it sure would be nice if everywhere had enough donors to keep the blood in country. Though I suppose even in such a utopia, gold blood would still be sent around the world when necessary.

    • Aeao@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      5 hours ago

      I wish that wouldn’t happen… does it really seem wild though? People skip all kinds of appointments without calling.

      • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        5 hours ago

        Most appointments are to have something done to a person’s own benefit. Chiropractic, dental, accountant, that sort of thing. Making an appointment to donate blood to a person you’ll never meet is a type of selflessness that surprises me when I hear of people missing those appointments.

        Someone at the clinic I go to once mentioned they had two or three missed appointments every day. I don’t know, I suppose I take it more seriously than most, but it strikes me as an odd thing to miss. Especially when the service here calls two days before an appointment to confirm.

        • Aeao@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          5 hours ago

          I understand your dismay. Believe me I’m not saying the behavior is right. I’m just describing what is.

          You nailed it. They will no call no show to appointments to try out wedding cake samples. Giving blood isn’t even fun. They only made the appointment because they didn’t want to look selfish for the blood drive people.

          • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            5 hours ago

            You’ve reminded me some years ago I donated at a pop up clinic, and it was across the street from a carnival that came to town. They went and got a bunch of ride and games tickets and gave them to blood donors. Big sign over at the carnival, and the clinic was packed.

            That’s a random way to get people in, but it worked, and it was fun. Now if only they could take the donation while people wait in line for a ride haha.