Princess Two and Her First Experience Donating Blood - Or Trying To Donate Anyway

Princess Two had a new experience recently, she finally weighs enough that she can donate blood! She barely meets the requirements to donate and she was excited to do it as her sisters have been able to donate and I used to regularly donate before the "parasite" mess. 

Of course she was a bit nervous about the entire thing, not knowing what to expect, and I was proud of her that she wanted to do this and help others. My mother got 2 units of blood each week (post here and another about that) for a long time with her health problems so we are grateful to those who take the time and sacrifice to donate. Hopefully none of us will ever need blood, but it is good to know there are those out there that will donated. 

Princess Two hopped up on the table and willingly allowed the worker to stick her with the huge straw of a needle and all seemed to be going well. Next time I look over, the worker is screaming for the supervisor and I am freaking out a bit. 

She had pressure on her arm and there was blood all over the table and floor and some in the bag. I kept asking her if she was "OK" and she said she was but I guess the worker forgot to tape the needle into her arm! She was told to keep pumping the hand, which she did, and that caused the needle to be pushed out of her vein and blood was spurting all over from her vein. 

The supervisor could tell I was about to freak out not knowing what was happening and seeing blood everywhere, she said, "The needle popped out!" I then calmed down but said "I have never seen that happen before..." I have started many IV's in my life and have never, ever seen one pop out of a vein and the supervisor said, "I saw it just today!" I guess this was the SECOND time that worker forgot to tape the needing in, and because there was already blood in the bag, they couldn't start her donating on the other arm as they can't then gage how much blood has been drawn as there is a legal limit to how much blood they can take in one donation and within a certain amount of days! 

So, this poor girl, for her first experience, had blood all over and they took some time wiping it off everything with bleach wipes and even though there was only a little bit of blood in the bag, they sent it in as they said they could use the blood for testing purposes. 

I was worried for her as I had a bad experience when I was younger than she is now. They butchered up my arm so much I bled into my arm and I had bruises from my wrist to just below the shoulder and, in the end, they didn't get enough blood in the bag for a donation as I was bleeding so much inside due to the hack job the phlebotomist did on my arm and veins trying to find a vein. The more frustrating thing was, that they had called me to go donate, as they were short on my blood type, so I drove 45 minutes to donate the blood and then they couldn't use it. I went to visit a friend in the area and fainted at his work as I was bleeding so much inside. It took a few weeks for my arm to heal and it was SUPER sore for a week. 

I was worried about her fainting, and she actually was shaken by the entire thing and ended up near tears after almost fainting as I know she was bleeding in the arm. They laid her flat and let her sip on some apple juice until she felt "OK" to sit up and feel better. I kept an eye on her for a few minutes as I didn't want her to faint and cause injury. 


She sent me the top picture of her arm the next day. I figured it would get worse before it got better as bruises often do, but I was still proud of her for trying. She sent me the lower picture when I asked how it was doing. I don't know if she will ever try again as she is so close to the weight cut off, and now having had a bad experience, but either way, she was a trooper for trying.  

I have had bad experiences four time in my life with donation due to the phlebotomist not being good at drawing blood or starting the IV /draw well. It is crazy to me these people get little training and when they ruin a draw, it costs hundreds of dollars as the unit of blood makes LOTS of money for them when it is given to someone. The blood costs the Red Cross a few cookies and the price of collection and the phlebotomists probably make less than $10 an hour. Of course there is testing on it but they are still making money on the deal. If the phlebotomists screw up a few draws a day, and maybe keep that person from donating a gain in the future due to trauma etc, it may be worth their while to pay a little bit more for an experienced person or keep good phlebotomists as the loss is costing them more than a weeks salary for a few bad draws! 

I have literally had four times when they butchered my vein, or put it into a small vein and after an hour of trying didn't have enough to fill a bag. I have great veins and a good phlebotomist can get a full bag in 15 minutes, so it is really frustrating when they have to call a supervisor over to get it into the vein after they have poked around for 5 minutes digging in my arm! It causes the arm to be sore for days and causes bruising to the site, which in reality, doesn't need to happen with a good draw. I am a little frustrated and am venting as it really shouldn't be that common of a thing! 

Hopefully the Red Cross will figure out that keeping a good person and paying a little extra for their talent is more cost effective than driving people off with trauma or bad experiences. 

I am grateful they exist but they do make money on a free item and they provide a needed service so it is wonderful they are there, but I wonder how they would do if a large company came in that paid a little for the donation, had workers that were skilled and sold the blood for less? I bet they would step up their game! 

Just some rants from a frustrated mom! 

Have a safe and Blessed Day!