Okay - this is gonna step on some toes.. but - think about this before you freak out on the left “blue pill” side of the room.
Who here remembers Arthur Ashe? Back in the day when I was just out of high school, played tennis into college and med school…. Mr Ashe was a hero to me. Oh yes, he was a black dude… Dang, he developed heart disease and eventually required “open heart surgery” which back in the day almost always involved some blood transfusion. No we weren’t idiots back then but our heart lung machines we used for heart surgery were primitive…basically big bags we ran the patient’s blood through while bubbling oxygen through the bag as well and then clunky ways to remove the bubbles and heat the blood back to 98.6 degrees to return to the patient’s circulation That is as we stopped the heart and did bypass surgery or replaced a heart valve or two as the heart was “arrested”. So the “prime” almost always included a couple units of blood. After the operation was all finished, we would reinfuse as much as possible from the pump to get the different pressures normal.. pulmonary artery pressure, left atrial pressure, arterial blood pressure. Eventually someone figured out how to spin blood in a machine very fast and centrifugal force pushed the red blood cells out and they were sucked away— (the Cellsaver). The hemoconcentrated blood could be re-in fused to the patients circulation cause the blood we hade “spun” were his own red cells. Yes platelet counts dropped, and yes, the “protein” parts of blood that had to do with normal blood clotting get depleted- but hey also advancing were modern blood banking techniques and we had “platelet packs” or “fresh frozen” plasma we could infuse. Calling for a “six-pack” didn’t involve blood in the heart room - but platelet packs.…While we thought we were so smart….. actually we have come full circle and now more and more use type specific (you know- A, B, O etc) fresh whole blood-recently donated for modern heart surgery. So throughout heart surgery history, say since the 1960s things have changed —but for Arthur Ashe, he got transfusions. He did well from his heart surgery but eventually developed AIDS (no he was not a homosexual) He got it from the blood. Even in the 1980s I had a couple of patients develop AIDS after I did heart surgery on them.. And they were not promiscuous or homosexual.
But from the time AIDS became a thing - as it should have as a deadly disease…. blood banks have been asking donors “have you had sex with another man, have you had AIDS, even the women were asked - have you had sex with a man with AIDS or who has had sex with another man” - also “do you use IV drugs?” and thus the blood supply was relatively free of AIDS virus blood.
In the midst of all this the main government doctor in charge of AIDS medicine development was — Anthony Fauci. Hmmmmm interesting. Indeed - medications have advanced and people with AIDS are living longer and longer with their disease.
Drugs are better today, and mostly addicts are taking fentanyl which is oral and not having to hunt for veins to shoot intravenous heroin into. Yes.. even orally, more than 100,000 Americans are dying every year from fentanyl overdose.
But the “woke” media has now turned with government to “de-stigmatize” the status of homosexuals etc. For years, they have been shunned from blood donor centers. But read the articles below. Soon you will not know if the bag of blood dripping into your vein is from a HIV positive donor as in the past. Or— a COVID patient — or a COVID shot recipient. Try to ask your hospitals about “Can I get blood from known viral free, COVID spike protein free donors.>?????” You will be escorted out by uniformed security as a “misinformation spreader.” The below series came from a doctor newsletter I get….quoted below to the break line….
FDA Issues Draft Policy To Ease Restrictions On Blood Donations From Gay And Bisexual Men
The New York Times (1/27, Jewett, Anthes) reported the FDA “plans to revise a longstanding policy that excluded most gay and bisexual men from blood donation, instead adopting an approach that will screen donors depending on their recent sexual activity, agency officials said on Friday.” The agency “said the new guidelines would be more inclusive and were based on a review of a recent study and data from other countries, including Britain and Canada, that took similar approaches.”
The AP (1/27, Perrone) reported the draft policy would “do away with the current three-month abstinence requirement for donations from men who have sex with men” and instead would screen all potential donors “with a new questionnaire that evaluates their individual risks for HIV based on sexual behavior, recent partners and other factors.” Also, this policy would “apply to women who have sex with gay or bisexual men.”
Reuters (1/27, Satija, Samal) reported the FDA “has also proposed new time limits for people taking pre-exposure prophylaxis or post-exposure prophylaxis treatments used for HIV prevention.”
Outlets that also reported similarly were NBC News (1/27, Lovelace), CNN (1/27, Hassan), and The Hill (1/27, Choi)
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Back to the donor thing…One thing that was an option way back in the day was to “self donate.” I was giving blood frequently back then in my 40s, 50s, but the blood bank had a program where they would spin, and freeze (frozen RBCs) and store your blood with your own name so you could get your blood for elective surgery etc. I gave, and my two units of blood disappeared. I heard nothing further. Never needed it so I didn’t to “look for it.” Oh well.. I bet it got used somehow.
Talking about donor things - and heart surgery… This past Saturday I attended (virtually) the 4.5 hr Cardiovascular Summit from the Texas Heart Institute. Outstanding in every single way. They still are the best of the best - in Cardiovascular care! But point is I learned some new facts about heart transplants.
I knew that we had some 35,000 Americans with profound heart failure needing a heart transplant. We only have about 2500 to 3500 “donors” for those transplants. So people continue to die for lack of a donor heart. Well the latest thing is taking donor hearts from Hepatitis “C” patients— but wait that was always a 100% sure thing that the recipient of the heart would get Hep “C”. Why do we have so many potential donors that are hep C.. well because it like AIDS runs through the IV drug user community like a wildfire- so most drug addicts are hep “C” positive. And of course, who is likely to die with their (young ) heart physically intact?.. Either a gunshot wound to the head or a drug over dose.. Thus the addicted community is a large donor pool if we could get around the Hep “C” conversion we know will happen in the recipient. Without going into details - the option now is to take the donor heart - do the transplant - and immediately start treating the recipient with all the Hep “C” meds - of course as well as the anti-rejection meds for the new heart. Apparently that is working very well with heart recipients not converting to Hep “C” positive..That research is ongoing and “we shall see.”
Ask your doctor/hospital about the blood transfusions from their blood bank. Watch the Nuremberg Polka 2.0 as they dance around your question - Bottom line is you probably will NOT get a truthful answer or they will suddenly get busy and have to depart the scene. Point is - you will likely not get a true legally required “informed consent” explanation.
I think the equipment, etc is fine. The problem is the donor themselves. With a heart recipient hovering over the grave with a 12% ejection fraction - they may not care.. But as one readers points out, what a disaster it would be if one was injured suddenly in a car wreck or a fall and required emergency surgery and transfusion and then gets AIDS or COVID issues or Hep C.. Realize that you will have had to sign for blood (or your relative). I have operated on Jehovah's witnesses doing heart surgery on them with no blood transfusions. Some sects of that religion- will allow the use of cardiopulmonary bypass for heart surgery, but once the pump stops, one may not restart it again and no blood may be removed and processed out of the pump like I have described. Don't ask me to explain, cause I don't understand either. But - I have followed the family request for the patient.
BIG business waiting to happen. People would pay to avoid that situation. Similar to unvaxxed pilots.