Tweet By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center A unit of red blood cells (RBCs) expires in 35 or 42 days because of the type of anticoagulant in the bag. But in real...
When Jenny died on October 28, 1995, a month before her 22nd birthday, she lost her battle with leukemia, but she fulfilled her purpose in life. Just before she died, I promised her that I would carry on that work. To me, it was like receiving a spiritual transfusion. At Jenny's memorial service, I urged people to give blood in her memory and to consider becoming regular donors (giving every eight weeks). For many, the importance of donating blood finally hit home.
The following note was an e-mail sent to a few of us at SBC from our dedicated, invaluable resource at Stanford Hospital’s Transfusion Service department. She asked that we share this with our donors and what a perfect time...
By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Most of our blood donors probably already know that the positive or negative after their blood type (A+, B-, for example) represents their Rh factor, an...
By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Made for Each Other What does the center of the earth have in common with the center of our Red Blood Cells (RBCs)?? Fe: Iron....
By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Meet Kenketsu-chan (“blood donation girl”), Japan’s most well-known blood donation mascot. She is a little pixie with big shiny drops of blood for ears. Kenketsu-chan...
By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Here’s an interesting trivia question: Can a man who is type A and a woman who is type B have a type O baby? a) Only...
By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center The next time you hear somebody say they have “blue blood” in their ancestry & are trying to tell you that they are of royal blood...
By Billie Rubin, Hemoglobin’s Catabolic Cousin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Back in 1668 when there were a few experiments of blood transfusions from sheep into humans, the reason for doing this wasn’t that sheep were plentiful...
By Erin Crager, Marketing Intern, Stanford Blood Center A deafening whistle cuts through the crisp morning air of Stanford Blood Center’s (SBC) parking lot, on par with the ear piercing fire alarm that’s just led to the congregation of the...