What A Bloody Mess

CONTENT WARNING: Blood (due to disconnected tube during donation) , Needles
 

I used to sell plasma in college. It was an easy way to get some cash, and I usually just sat and read the whole time. For those who don’t know, basically, they put a needle in your arm with a tube attached. The tube goes to a machine, and the blood goes through the tube into the machine where the plasma gets separated from the whole blood. Then, a saline solution is added to replace the missing plasma, and it gets injected back into your body. The cycle repeats a few times, and the whole process takes about an hour and a half. 

After college, I moved to a different city and decided to continue selling plasma. I found a location and filled out the paperwork.  

Pretty soon, I was sitting on the chair getting hooked up to the machine. The attendant inserted the needle while he was checking over the machine to start the process. Satisfied he had done everything, he released the clamp near the needle to start the blood flow.  

Except he hadn’t attached the tube. 

Blood flowed out of that needle and all over my clothes.  

Luckily, he acted fairly quickly, closed the clamp up, and got everything connected for real. I finished up my donation and had to go home looking like I was in a knife fight. But they gave me a bag of anti-coagulant to soak my clothes and the blood stains came out with no problem. 

I figured that was a fluke incident and went back a couple of weeks later.  

This time, I paid closer attention to the attendant and told them about what had happened the last time. They were careful to get everything connected right.  

I don’t really have a problem with needles, but I didn’t want to look over and see one sticking out of me, so I asked them to tape a loose bit of gauze over the area.  

The first cycle of the machine seemed to be taking longer than usual. The person next to me was done with their first cycle before I was even at the part where my blood comes back in. Finally, I heard the sound of the machine indicating it was ready to pump my blood back in. 

What used to be an odd sensation and metallic taste in my mouth now was painful. I flagged down the attendant and told him that it hurt. He wasn’t taking me seriously and wasn’t very quick about getting to me. Finally, he came over and took a look.  

Attendant: “Oh… uh… you’re done for today.”

I was confused until he removed that gauze. My forearm had a swelling in it the size of a golf ball.  

It turns out that the needle was only inserted halfway into my vein, so my blood was coming out very slowly, and when it went back in, a lot of it was pooling under my skin.  

They assured me that it would get reabsorbed into my body over the next few days and there was nothing to worry about. I should just try not to use that arm too much and take it easy. 

What they didn’t say was that it would produce a deep purple bruise from my elbow to my wrist. I had to wear long sleeves for a while until it faded. At least I still got paid for that visit. 

But I decided that plasma donation was no longer for me.