r/wholesomememes 15d ago

Miracles happen.

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u/Mispeled_Divel 15d ago

How did she find out? In the US there is HIPAA and I imagine other countries have similar laws, even without laws like that shouldn’t it be difficult to find that stuff out?

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u/hammonjj 15d ago

A lot of countries keep track of this information. For example, I can’t remember the country but when your blood is used you’re sent a message saying you helped save a life

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u/rogue_ger 15d ago

Don’t they also pool a bunch of same-type donor blood and test it in batches?

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u/blaaaaaaaam 15d ago

They mix small portions of donor blood to do batch testing. They'll mix like five test tubes together and run the test. If it comes up negative, they saved the cost of four tests. If it comes up positive, they know they need to test each of the five individually.

Whole blood donations are often divided into their components and as the platelet portion is so small they combine it with other donors to get a full unit. I've heard it takes up to 10 whole blood donations to get a single unit of platelets