Red Cross Turns Away Blood Donators
11/28/2004
The American Red Cross has started turning away able donors, for the
senseless reason that they happened to spend time in Europe sometime in
the last 25 years. Yes, that's right folks, the people who
constantly beg and plead for donors no longer want any blood possibly
contaminated in Europe. Now, I have been donoting blood regularly
ever since the 1970's. I am not one of those people who decided
to donate once a decade when our soldiers start coming back bloodied
from overseas. I have averaged a donation about once a quarter
for the last thirty years or so. I felt it was a small way to
give something back to the world at large, knowing that the day might
come when I might need back some of that couple of gallons I gave away.
This year, I went to donate again. The experience of donating is
a hassle. It has turned into a red tape nightmare. You are
required to read ten pages of "thou shalls" and "thou shalt
nots". You are stuck, pricked, and probed. You are required
to answer a 30 question test, in which you assert that you have not had
sex with someone of your same persuasion in the past 3 years, that you
have not visited any crack whores in the past 3 years, and that you
have been clean of your heroin habit for the past 3 years. I've
done it so many times, I almost skip through the questions. There
is a pattern. One of the questions is "Are you feeling healthy
today?", to which the correct answer is "yes". All of the other
questions you answer "no" to (this is, of course, assuming that you can
honestly answer them with the "correct" answer). This year,
however, there was a new question; and I almost missed it in my haste
to move on.
"Have you ever spent a total time that adds up to 6 months or more in
the United Kingdom or Europe since January 1, 1980?" I was a
little surprised. The AIDS related questions don't go that far
back. What was up with this? You see, I could not answer
"no" to this question. I spent from January to September, 1980,
in Germany. I was working for an American company which deployed
some computer systems to Germany. So, I figured, no problem, I'll
just answer "yes", and when they ask for an explanation, I'll just
answer with the truth. It's such an innocent situation, surely
someone will have the sense to wave me on and let me finish my donation.
Alas, "sense" has no place in our society anymore. The Red Cross
worker administering the test called over her supervisor, and after
questioning me for a minute they said I could not donate. I was
pissed in the extreme, but I knew it was not the fault of these people,
they just worked there. So I left, went back to my office, and
fired off a nasty-gram to the American Red Cross. I told them
they could kiss my ass, although I had the decency to "asterisk" out
the word "ass" itself. I got a phone call the next day from the
Red Cross, but basically just to inform me that it not under their
control and there was nothing they could do about it. I was
rather cross with this woman.
Today, I got the following letter from the Red Cross. I thought I
would share it with the world just to show how absolutely ridiculous
this whole thing is.
Click here for the nasty-gram from the American
Red Cross