Hemochromatosis patients can donate their blood rather than having it discarded
8 comments
·March 1, 2025graypegg
Out of curiosity since it’s not mentioned in the article, but what would receiving blood with a high iron content implicate? Is it something generally tolerable by someone without the condition as a 1 time transfusion? Would you have to mix blood to get the average hemoglobin iron content to some target level? I assume your body can handle the spike in iron and slowly bring you back to your body’s normal level.
If so, wow! Honestly who would say “no” to donation? If I had this disease and someone was just tipping my blood into the dirt every 12months when it could be helping people, I would actually be pissed that no one gave me the choice before.
toast0
AFAIK, high iron in the blood isn't a problem for donatee. I think low iron in donated blood can be a problem, so most blood banks will do a quick screening and will turn donors away if your iron levels are too low.
The reason donations from known hemochromatosis patients have been turned away in the past was because of ethics. Blood and other medical donations are supposed to be of free will with no benefit for the donor. If you didn't know you had hemovhromatosis and gave blood regularly, you might never find out, and that would be fine. But once you know that giving blood helps you out, it's no longer of free will with no benefit for you.
Not all organizations have held this strict interpretation, and more and more blood organizations are accepting donations from people with this condition over time as generally they all would like more donations.
pkaye
I imagine it might be actually useful for patients that are anemic with all that extra iron. But it seems from this link that donated blood is processed and separated into standard units so many multiple donor blood is mixed together.
https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/blood-donation-pr...
tialaramex
They don't mix it. Blood isn't interchangeable, as they explain on that link they sometimes need to destroy individual donations after separation if tests find a problem (e.g. you unknowingly have HIV) so if they were mixing the blood they'd need to destroy far more when this happens. Perhaps more importantly match checks can't work effectively except on a single donation. If you're a non-emergency transfusion patient you'll be cross matched with the intended blood, which means they know before transfusing that it's definitely compatible.
In fiction there are a handful of blood "types" and all the AB+ is identical, in reality it's more complicated than that, so if you've got enough time you always check and that means the donations must be from a single specific (even if anonymous) donor.
delecti
Not an expert, but the donating (and/or bloodletting) is scheduled frequently enough to keep their iron from deviating too high above normal, and someone receiving a transfusion is typically going to be low on blood. Put 'em together, and I'd be surprised if a hemochromatosis transfusion could be a problem for anyone who doesn't themselves have hemochromatosis.
But yeah, this does seem like a really mutually beneficial arrangement. They need to lose some blood either way, might as well put it to use.
tonyarkles
Just to clarify, the Australian Red Cross is now allowing Hemochromatosis patients to donate plasma and is apparently the first in the world to do that.
Whole blood from hemochromatosis patients isn’t new. In Canada, at least, a buddy of mine was diagnosed about 10 years ago and “I just have to donate blood on a schedule” was the treatment he was given.
paddez
Definitely not new - as someone who was diagnosed with Haemochromatosis in 2017 - I was first prescribed phlebotomies until my general iron levels reached a level that my consultant was happy with.
Once I hit that level, I'm able to donate blood about twice a year (once every six months) to maintain (that, and a slightly changed diet to avoid high iron food)
I have HH and donate regularly with Vitalant, who has a monopoly on donations in Colorado. When I was originally diagnosed 20+ years ago, I had a prescription and they discarded the blood. After some research I decided to monitor my own iron levels and decide myself when to donate. Without a prescription, they are able to use the blood.