My state will not allow us to give blood either. They consider it some sort of payment to take our blood. Gidget

I live in NC, there are a very few here that accept the blood, not Red Cross, also a few in SC, they have just started this, I think eventually it will get easier and easier for us to find these banks. Thank God I found this in my state, I had just lost my medical insurance, and there was no way I could pay for this. I also go to an independent lab for my Ferritin checks. The drawback for these banks in accepting HH blood, as told to me today, is that they in this agreement to accept, also have to take the blood of the HH patients who's blood cannot be used..they just simply dispose of it. She told me that most of the HH blood they get..is not usable. Mine is....
Patty

I forgot to add that you have to have a prescription for the blood bank.

Thanks Patty,
Did the nurse happen to mention what determines whether our blood is useable? Something related to HH, or other independent factors.
Interesting.

tuistone, usable meaning not diseased. HH has nothing to do with it being usable that I know of. They use mine. And since my blood type is very common, she said they are very happy to get it!
Also, I put in that post that "most" is not usable, and I should have put "alot"..sorry

The last time I was in Calif, August, near SF, I needed my phleb and had to lie about the HH or would not have gotten one at a blood bank. That is the US for you! I now live mostly abroad in Mexico and Buenos Aires where in their wisdom, (they are the third world and all you know) they have no problem whatsoever with taking HH blood. This is true in all of Europe also. Besides having no active research on HH, the US is again falling behind in the medical field, and I am not talkng about the scandalous insurance issues! The University of Buenos Aires Medical School, the best in all of Latin America, is 3 blocks from my house there and I have enrolled in their HH clinical trials now, hopefully providing research data for future use. I am not aware of any such program in the entire US, but I have been told that the insurance companies make sure this does not happen.

Massachusetts will not but the tiny state of Rhode Island is glad to have me aboard as a donor and I am willing to travel there to know my blood is being used and not thrown out. I still needed a physician's prescription but my doctor was glad to give one for me.

Could this be added to the current health care bill? Non contaminated blood donations will be accepted from HH patients. What do you think?

I like it!

why not just slip it in with the other 2000 pages.

Great suggestion, Gidget. A couple of paragraphs slipped into about page 1,750. I understand most reps. and senators don't read the bills anyway, so it would be a done deal. Can see some lowly aid reading it on his Blackberry as the vote is being tallied and freaking.

My Hematologist just told me to not tell that i Hemochromotosis when i give blood. I haven't started any phlebotomy's yet though.