Taking Vital Signs Before Donating Blood

Video Transcript

"So we do the vital signs after that just to make sure that our donors aren't exuding any cold or flu symptoms. They don't have any temperature, fever. Their not hypertensive or meaning they don't have high blood pressure. Those types of things can lead us to believe that they could have some underlying condition that would need to be addressed. And then after a series of vital signs I will take a hemoglobin count. Hemoglobin is the protein that makes up your red blood cells. So we do this count to make sure that our donors will tolerate the donation well, they'll donate safely and that the product we're giving to our patients is potent. So the minimum requirement of hemoglobin for a whole blood donor, which is the standard whole blood donation is twelve point five grams per deciliter of blood. The average hemoglobin count for a female is about twelve to fourteen. Making the hemoglobin a very common deferral for woman. For men it's fourteen to sixteen, so usually don't have any problem."