Por Que Hospital Chiriquí
Sep 27th, 2007 by Don Ray
Recently a call went out on the Panama Yahoo groups for a blood donation for a local Chiriquí gringa. However, it has come to my attention that the hospital would not take donations from anyone over 60 years of age. I further understand that they would not accept blood donations from anyone that had traveled to the US within the last six months.
Neither, of these exceptions for donors, make any sense to me. I wish someone would give me some rational for their position. My uncle donated blood in the states well into his 80’s. Does the hospital think it is better for a person to die than to receive blood from a healthy person over 60? Could this possibly mean that the hospital doesn’t have the ability to properly screen the blood for problems?
What do you think? Inquiring minds want to know.
Don Ray:
anyone that had traveled to the US within the last six months.
That may be a government regulation. Probably we would find that you cannot donate blood in the USA if you traveled to Central America within the last 6 months.
As for the over 60 restriction, that is a puzzle. Perhaps, they figure you can’t spare any.
Hi Tom. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
You could be right about the travel. However, I don’t find much sense in it.
In the second case, you have reminded me that I haven’t checked my blood level lately. I hope I am not a quart low.
Oklahoma Blood Institute requires that you cannot have traveled to the European Countries or Africa in the past 3 years and here in the states you can give blood as long as you want unless you have had diseases such as Hepatitis, cancer you cannot give until you are five years past you last chemotherapy and of course you cannot give if you have HIV or history of some of the STD’s. My dad gave blood faithfully here in Oklahoma until the age of 87. You see senior citizens at the Blood Institute all the time here. I will check through our blood banks here and see if there is anything about traveling in Central America but don’t think so. Jan
Hi Jan. Thanks for the US update (I think Oklahoma is still in the US
).
We we’re regular blood donors in Oklahoma and went back and forth to Panama. The only restriction was that we could not have been in the Darien; or the Bocas del Toro region. Did not matter if we returned yesterday! According to the rules here almost all of us are too old which reasonably makes it hard to set up a network with friends to donate in emergencies. Elsewhere the Red Cross criteria were posted and I agree with the poster. Sometimes you need a small untruth about travel & meds. in order to save a life here vs/ death by bureaucracy.
Hi Sharon. Thanks for commenting. You are right. This is a problem I don’t like learning about.
Hi Don Ray, I donated for a friend at another hospital in David that had the same six month requirement about being out of the country. A group of five of us had gone to donate blood and all were refused because we had all gone back to the States for visits in that time frame. We got around it by the person needing the blood signing a consent waiver and the individual doctor agreeing to accept it. This was something we had to ask for from the doctor; the hospital did not volunteer it. Maybe Chiriqui Hospital would do the same.
Hi VonDell. Thanks for the comment. That is good information. I guess there would still be a problem if the person was unable to sign a document.
I give blood all the time in Virginia. There used to be a very long list of questions asked about your travels. I used to have to state where I had traveled (Panama) and to what part. They always took my blood. The last time (2 months ago) there was no travel questions asked.
Thanks for leaving a comment Ron.
Hi Don Ray:
I was very surprised to hear about the over 60 restriction. My husband is 69 and he was allowed to give blood twice for our dear friend, Kathryn. I believe the only restriction was a 4 month interval between donations.
Kathy
Hi Kathy. Was that donation here in Panama?
I’m reposting this here from the Gringos in David site, at Don’s request:
A recent incident has revealed that blood availability at David
hospitals is not a given. In fact, it appears that Hospital Chiriqui
does not maintain a blood bank, and that patients needing blood must
find donors to come to the hospital to donate. Furthermore, when my
husband went to Hospital David to donate for a friend, we were told
that the hospital does not have the equipment to collect platelets
for the patients, and therefore must harvest 6 pints of blood to be
centrifuged in order that the patient may receive one unit of
platelets. To make matters worse, once you donate whole blood, you
are prohibited from donating for another 6-8 weeks. Alternatively,
platelet donors can donate every 3 days.
Hospital Regional (the government run hospital in David) does
maintain some type of blood bank, but it appears that blood from its
stores are not available to Hospital Chiriqui patients, according the
the technician in Hospital Chiriqui’s laboratory.
This is something the community needs to be aware of in emergency
situations. Also, if you’re insured at Hospital Chiriqui and are
required to use that hospital in an emergency or for surgeries, you
may want to investigate this further.
As with everything here, this is information is based on our recent
experience and I’m relying on the accuracy of the information
provided by the workers in Hospital Chiriqui’s laboratory. So, it’s
possible that there may be inaccuracies in my statements, but we all
need to ask for more information if we have to rely on medical care
here in David.
Thanks Laura.
Hi Don Ray:
in response to your question, yes, my husband gave blood at Hospital Chiriqui. I would advise anyone who needs blood but is able to get to Panama City, to do so. I recently had surgery at Punta Pacifica Hospital and my doctor told me they had 14 pints of blood set aside in case I needed it. Thankfully, I didn’t need that much! Evidently they maintain their own blood bank. I remember what a nightmare it was for Kath when she needed blood and platelets. No one that ill should have to go through the process she was put through in David.
Thanks for providing the information. This problem at Hospital Chiriquí should be a concern to anyone living or moving here. Hopefully with some focus being placed on the situation, Chiriquí will solve this problem.
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