Donors will be encouraged to remain for about 15 minutes so that staff members can monitor their status. If a donor does experience a reaction, such as light-headedness, a staff member will assist them to a private recovery area until they are ready to leave. After you leave the donation site, your unit of blood will undergo several more steps. The sample tubes will go to a laboratory for infectious disease testing. If all tests are negative, your blood will be labeled with the blood type and whole blood number.
Hospitals call the blood center every day and request quantities of blood components by blood type.
In order for your blood to be ready to help people, it must go through all the previous steps and get to hospital shelves in time for the patient who needs it.