Does anyone here carry a donor card or donate blood?

I do both

 

I carry a donor option on my driving licence.

Why do you want to know? Not planning on doing anything stupid are you? Do you need to know are blood groups too?

 

No I'm just curious about how much people are aware of the importance of it. There are too many people who care more for what their body will look like in the coffin then for saving someone's life by donating organs for transplants

 

Sod the appearance. If they can make someone who's been burnt to death look normal, then they sure as hell won't care about a few missing organs. :-o

Besides, I'd be dead. I've asked my family, because they would be the only ones with any qualms about donation, and they're all fine with it (most of them are donors too anyway) so I've agreed to donate pretty well everything. Hope they can find a use for it really.

 

i'm too young to donate blood, but i think my mom would gladly donate my organs if i did die some horrible gruesome death

 

I've been donating blood at the UCLA Medical Center since I was in college. Unfortunately they don't to my knowledge give you "credit" for donated blood like the Red Cross does. However, I've made a few donations at Red Cross centers in my time, and each experience has been more horrific than the previous. I say if I'm going to lie down somewhere and potentially bleed to death, I might as well be comfortable with the facilities and the staff. Hmph.

And yes, I've also got a little organ donor sticker on my license. I wonder if it would be better for my dogs to see me dead before they carve me up, or just let them think I abandoned them, or if they'd know the truth anyway.... Poor doggies.

Great. Now I've made myself sad.

 

In my country (Israel) blood donating is very common and people are very aware of the importance of it. We have a terrorism problem (getting worse every month unfortunately), and after each attack there are blood donation stations opening everywhere, in virtually every mall. Nothing scary about blood donation, you just lie down for 10 minutes with a needle in your vein, chatting up a pretty girl in a white coat, which is fun . I'm not sure if we get any "credit" for it, but I don't do it to get something, I really want to help people. I had two friends who died of terminal diseases and I know that people like them desperately need our donations.

 

I don't donate blood. I would, but I have an almost pathalogical fear of needles. :-o :cry: But only if they're trying to get me. As a biologist, I'm perfectly fine with stabbing other people or objects with them. :grin:

 

Fear of needles? Rubbish, your nurse just wasn't pretty enough. If she was you wouldn't even notice the needle, you'd be too busy staring at other things

 

I'm okay with needles being jabbed into me, in fact, some sick part of me probably likes it. If I die, my organs will be donated. Everyone in my family has taken that option, I think, so it'd be unusual if I wouldn't. I can actually think of no good reason why I shouldn't.

As for donating blood, well, I'd like to donate blood, but unfortunately, I have this little probably of feeling incredibly sick and weak after blood is taken from me, so I don't do it. I'm aware that the nausea is most likely a common feeling, but damn it, I don't like even feeling sick!

 

I try and donate blood at least twice a year. It helps others, and I've got more than enough to spare (I'm nae a wee man). I'm O+, so while I'm not a Universal Dnor (O-), I'm still fairly useable

I'm also listed as an organ donor on my driver's license.

 

I have, quite sadly, been forbidden from donating blood. Since I grew up in less than first world countries, they fear that my blood is contaminated. Apparently, after 24 years of life, I might still be a carrier for Mad Cow disease. Go figure.

Since I believe in reincarnation, it's never been a debate as to whether or not I would donate my organs after my death. Of course I would. It would be my final plea to the supreme being to give me a glorious next life. Since I have, quite apparently, pissed him off in a life previously and am now being punished for it, I've done everything in my power to get in good deeds. Donating my organs is just one more step toward a blissful next life.

I would donate blood, but can't. I will donate my organs, in this life and the next.

 

This is disgraceful. What country do you hail from if you don't mind me asking? I've heard that here in Israel the doctors were suspicious to the blood donated by people of Ethiopean origin, but after it came out the situation had changed. There are tests for God's sake! They can't rule you out as a donor and deprive someone from getting another blood transfusion just because you're of a "wrong" ethnic origin!

 

Sadly, the main reason for not taking my blood is that I was born in London (home of the Mad Cow) and was raised in Egypt and Thailand. The rejections that I have received, however, always come from American doctors who have a super-inflated view of their own self-worth.

In every other country that I've ever lived, doctors have fallen over themselves to receive blood donations. It was only in the short time that I lived in the states that I was told that my blood might be impure, and it has been rejected.

Yes, it is a shame that I'm rejected when people worldwide need my donation. However, the problem will always stem from American views as opposed to the needs of the people.

 

I don't think its the American views that are a problem. Its the incredible ignorance and deeply rooted stereotypes (all Africans are AIDS infected, all Londoners eat mad cow infected meat) in the heads of some people that are to blame. The Americans as a nation are open minded enough, judging by many people from US who I know personally.

 

gods know I try to be open-minded, and usually succeed. But, American doctors can be exceedingly arrogant (some of the one's I've known, anyway).

 

I will give my inner things away when I pass away
and I give blood every 3 months (blood type O neutral whatever that might mean)

 

There are two antigens to be found on human blood cells. Antigens are small molecular fragments that antibodies latch onto. It's a way for the body to recognise it's own cells so that the immune system doesn't attack them.

The two antigen types in humans are called A and B. When you possess both antigen types you are AB and when you possess neither antigen type then you are blood group O.

If you don't have an antigen type then you possess the antibody for that antigen. That way, if you are A type for example and you get B blood in your body, then the antibodies will recognise and destroy the B-type cells. This is why you cannot transfuse differing blood types.

If you are AB, then you have both antigens and thus don't have either antibody and can receive blood from everyone. If you're O, then you're unlucky as you possess both antibodies and can thus only receive blood from other O group people.

To make matters more complicated, you also have the Rhesus antigen. It is named after the Rhesus monkey in which it was first discovered.

The Rhesus factor is another antigen that is also located on the blood cells, but is seperate to the A or B antigens. This means that the ABO and Rhesus antigens are independant of each other and if you have one type then you don't neccessarily have to have the other.

Thus when you classify blood groups, you have an ABO blood group and a positve or negative next to the group (or in some bizarre countries, positive or neutral, which doesn't really make sense really because you can't have a neutral setting - you just have it or you don't).

Since you are O neutral (or O negative in sane countries :wink then you have neither A or B antigens or the Rhesus antigen. As such, you really have a very rare blood group and can only receive blood from other O -ve people. Basically, that means it sucks if you have an accident, and it's probably why you donate blood so much. They're desperate to find people with such rare blood as yours!

Hope this clears that up for you, and didn't put you into too deep a coma. :grin:

 

^^^ I love posts like that. I like it when something I've always wondered about (ie "What's the deal with blood types?") gets explained without me having to ask.

Anyway, I'm not a blood donor. Not for any specific reason other than I'm a bastard. I probably should do it, but I've just never gotten around to it. My workplace doesn't organize a blood-drive or anything like that, so the whole blood donor issue never registered on my radar. It's just something I never thought about. Now that I'm thinking about it, if I see one of those blood donor buses parked in a parking lot, I'll probably go in just to see what it's like to lose a couple of pints on a sunny day.

I am an organ donor. I think. The sticker's on my driver's license, but I forget whether or not I signed the card. I imagine that if I suddenly drop dead, this would be a weird situation for the hospital. You have a dead body with a donor sticker, but an unsigned donor card. Adding to the weirdness, there's the signature of a witness on the donor card validating my signature which is not there.

I guess I'll go dig through my wallet and sign that now. If any of you gets one of my fucked up body parts via transplant, you can thank¹ the TA forums for reminding me.



¹blame

 

I hope no one gets your lungs.