Statistics for donating blood and saving lives?

Question

I would like to know the facts about donating blood. We all hear "Congratulations, you donated x pints of blood that will save at least y lives!". Where do they get these statistics? Can someone please show me the sources?

Blood has to be generally fresh to be used, so I'm pretty sure most donated blood actually goes to waste (expires). There are also people with useless blood types that donate anyway, and blood when donated goes through other screening processes which leads to more wasting of donated blood.

So I would like to know, if during a blood drive they collect 100 pints of blood, how many lives would this really save on average? (i assume this answer to be much less than 1)

Answer 1

Why do you assume that most donated blood goes to waste & there are useless blood types?    You assume that with 100 pints of donated blood, less than one life is saved?  Or less than one life per unit?   I am a regular blood donor & though I don't have the stats that the previous poster has, I know for sure that your assumptions are way, way off base.

Answer 2

It's not true that the majority of blood goes to waste. Most blood donors are repeat blood donors, so it would be unlikely that the majority of these donors' disease status would change drastically.

FAST FACTS ABOUT BLOOD

Approximately five percent of the eligible population in the United States donates blood.

Just one unit of blood can save as many as three lives.

In the United States, a blood transfusion is needed every two seconds.

Approximately 34,000 units of blood are used each day in the United States.

One out of three people will need donated blood in their lifetime.

If all blood donors gave at least twice a year, it would greatly strengthen the nation’s blood supply.

Each unit of blood undergoes up to twelve tests, nine of which are for infectious disease.

One out of every ten people entering a hospital needs blood.

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1) My question to you is, What are your so-called "good reasons" not to believe any of these facts? Exactly what sources are YOU citing to back up YOUR claims?

2) here is the link for the fast facts listed. http://www.givelife2.org/sponsor/quickfa...

3) as an example, Stanford must collect 400 pints of blood PER DAY in order to meet the demands of area patients.

http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu/press/me...

4) As for the point on type B, North American blood centers often RUN SHORT on type B, NOT the opposite. And as for its rarity, the bias in your question is on your perspective.

Lastly, I wanted to add that it would be very unusual for there to be a surplus of blood. Blood is used in research laboratories every day. I assure you, that it is virtually impossible to procure "extra" blood for research. It is in constant demand for patients. If there were extra, the labs would be able to use it.