Posted on 12/02/2023 12:51:47 AM PST by Jonty30
TORONTO -- A young woman in Ontario claims she has been robbed of her independence and of her future since losing mobility in her arm after donating blood.
Four years ago, Gabriella Ekman visited a blood drive hosted by Canadian Blood Services so she could donate blood for the first time in her life.
“I was freshly 17. I was finally old enough to give blood. I was completely healthy. And that morning that I gave blood, my life changed as I knew it completely,” she told CTVNews.ca during a telephone interview from her home in Wasaga Beach, Ont. on Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at ctvnews.ca ...
An artery - higher pressure
Not a vein - lower pressure
Hemmoraging
A nurse went to draw blood from my arm, and she hit a nerve. The pain was incredible. I couldn’t move my arm right for over a month.
Late last year
Early this year
I was having to do
( mysthesia gravis )
Pherisis - plasma dialysis
as much as 3 x’s / week
Felt like a pin cushion
With all the blood test
They were doing
It sounds like a fourteen gauge needle hit the artery, or tore up the brachial nerve. Was it training day? It’s prudent to identify the artery first and know your anatomy. It does happen to the best of them, one needs to recognize it. There are signs you’re in an artery, bright red blood, pulsatile flow etc. The damage could have been from the direct trauma to the nerve, or pressure from a hematoma. This is really sad, now she has a dead arm, hopefully she doesn’t have neuropathic pain. They forgot to put out the “NO DIGGING” sign.
I see at the link that it was on her right hand but I didn’t see where it says whether she is left or righthanded. As one who has given blood over 50 times, it seems they always ask if you have a preference as to which arm you want to donate from. I never thought of this before but it makes sense to always tell them you want to donate from your non-dominant hand.
Very sad story. We can only wish the young lady well and hope that she gets a suitable settlement....
Back in college in the 80s I gave
blood and must have pumped up my arm
too much because I fainted and threw
up. Otherwise I have had no problems
with blood draws for tests.
There can be unforseen negative side effects to any procedure. Pfizer developed the boogie fever vaccine e in 1977 and there were no negative side effects in the animal trials but when given to humans they all developed hip hop.
Back in 2007, I had a sarcoidosis flare-up in my lungs. In the ER I was told that they were going to perform a “blood gas analysis test”, which involved taking blood from the artery in my wrist. I was told it would be painful because the needle would have to pass thru nerves and there was a possibility they could be damaged. I was a test dummy for someone who had never done it before, and she couldn’t find the artery so she kept fishing around with the needle looking for it. FINALLY, she found it and got her blood sample. It was extremely painful, but that wasn’t the best part. She failed to do something with the vial to release pressure in it, and the end popped off with great force, sending my blood everywhere. It looked like a crime scene in there, my blood was splattered all over the wall, and all over the nurse. Another nurse ( an older one) came in, ordered the first nurse to clean up the walls and herself. She then told me
“We’re going to have to do this again.”
Well, she took it from my arm near the elbow the second time. It didn’t hurt as much, and I got away with NO nerve damage.
I have had that test performed twice more over the years. It still hurt like hell, but no repeats of the first fiasco.
Yeah, this is definitely someone to feel bad for.
Something like this is going to happen every so often. Law of averages and all.
I could not donate blood for the longest time, due primarily to not making the weight limit.
The one and only time I did, they got the needle in easily and were impressed at how quickly I was “draining,” and would be finished, but it wasn’t until the 5th technician tried that they could get the needle out.
My arm did not look much different than the one in the picture to this article.
It was about a month before I could use it to even comb my hair.
No more blood donation for me. Maybe I shouldn’t take that attitude. Maybe it was just a fluke. But I suspect my veins are too small for the needles they have to use.
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