Five Interesting Facts about Blood

May, 2021 when I found the courage to visit one of the Red Cross' blood banks here in Singapore to donate. For the very first time. I'm a bit hesitant thinking my current weight wouldn't pass the minimum requirement. Apparently here in Singapore, you only have to weigh at least 45kg (99.20 lbs) to be able to donate compared in the Philippines where you need to be a minimum of 50kg (110 lbs).

During my first visit, I had to fill out some paper works and Red Cross staff initially checks both my arms for a good vein. Then they did a blood test by getting my blood sample through a finger prick to check for haemoglobin levels. Unfortunately, I did not pass the minimum haemoglobin level of at least 12.5 g/dL  for women, as I only registered 11.9 g/dL during that time. The staff then gave me Floron iron supplement tablets and advise me to take them for the next nine days and return to the blood bank for another round of tests. 

Ten days after, my blood test shows 12.9 g/dL haemoglobin level and was cleared for blood donation. Donating blood does not really hurt as the trained nurses administered local anaesthetic first. The actual blood donation took just less than 10 minutes as they draw only 350 ml of blood based on my weight which is below 50kg.

As I became interested in how our body replenishes lost or donated blood, I bumped into these interesting facts about blood:

1. The rarest blood type in the world is called Rh-null aka golden blood. So rare that only 43 people have this blood type worldwide. Blood is considered Rh-null if it lacks all of the 61 possible antigens in the Rh system. 
2. A person who draws blood is called Phlebotomist. They draw blood for tests, transfusions, research, or blood donations.
3. Mosquitos prefer people with blood type O and least attracted to type A blood.
4. People with blood type O negative are universal donors because O- is Rh-negative, it can be given to people with both positive blood types and negative blood types. These folks can also donate to A, B, and AB blood types.
5. People with AB+ blood type are universal blood recipients because type AB blood contains both A and B antigens, as well as the Rh factor, it can tolerate a transfusion from anyone on the ABO spectrum.

For more information on how you can donate blood, you can visit the Singapore Red Cross website.