Red Cross seriously messed my arm up

[Mead]

I gave blood last friday and afterwards my arm hurt really bad. I woke up saturday and had a huge bruise from halfway down my forearm to almost up to my arm pit. Now its the following thursday and ive still got a huge bruise and it hurts just as bad today as it did then. Any idea's what they did to me? My guess is that they went all the way through the vein so I was bleeding under my skin too in addition to them sucking a pint out through the needle. Which would explain why ive felt like crap lately cause I lost more blood than I should have and have continued to do manual labor all week.

Mead

[Warthog]

Maybe they "messed up".....can you go back?

[mattheadfat]

i don't feel much like donating blood anymore

[ClubMed]

Thats what happens when you dont press down hard (with a gauze) on the point of entry after your done giving blood. Should go away in a few days.

[daveleau]

They could have gone through the vessel. did it take longer than usual?

Too bad you had a bad tech. I used to give (sell) plasma in college when I was more poor than I am now. They did something similar. I kept going though and it was a one time problem.

Dave

[CERuppel]

Do give blood. Please???

You have saved my life, my wifes life, and many others.

Give the gift of life.

(or; Give till it hurts) j/k

Sorry to hear about the pain, and I sympothize. I bruise like the devil every time. And I hate needles...

[angelcat]

I started donating blood when I was still in high school, and by the time I had to quit donating, I had recieved my second gallon pin. The reason I had to quit was, I was diagnosed with Diabeties about a year ago. But, I am greatful for people like you, who do donate, for last spring, I was in the hospital, thanks to a freak reaction to a med I was taking, and nearly bled to death. I ended up having to have 4 pints of blood given to me.

I have also had large bruises after donating, and it does usually go away after awhile.

Think of it this way, this is the one gift, you are giving that is truly of yourself.................

[Chooco]

i dunno, needles still freak me right out

i hate it when they have those stupid students trying to do it, last time the student did it, they missed and my arm started to bleed. last time i went to donate blood and the student was gonna do it i said "no i want a registered nurse to do it"

[sven222]

hey mead, it mightve been a rusty needle.....hehe j/k

Probably a haematoma from blood leaking into the surrounding tissue. Could be because the vein was pierced though by the needle on insertion, but not real likely. Don't get good blood flow through the needle then.

More likely to be from the vein wall being torn on removal of the needle, or by you moving your arm around with the needle in it, or by lack of compression of the vein after removal of the needle.

A haemotoma is painful and uncomfortable, but very much better than dying from lack of blood. You are not likely to leak so much blood into your tissues that you die, but if you don't donate blood someone else might die because there is no blood to give them.

Let the Red Cross centre where you gave blood know about the haematoma - they can keep a check on whether their techs are doing a good job or need some more training. A haemotoma is a known potential side effect of any venepunture (needle into vein), but does not always indicate sloppy technique.

Just my opinion.

Cheers
Mick