I gave blood every six months for almost eight years. It gave me a warm feeling of saving people’s lives and an insurance that would entitle me to have free blood transfusion in case i would, God forbid, need one.
Last time i gave blood, a year ago, i received a letter from the Israeli Blood Bank director, Dr. Eilat Shen’ar. The letter said that a test had shown that i was found positive for Hepatitis C, but then they re-tested it and found that it was a false positive. Nevertheless, she wrote, i am kindly asked not to donate again.
My physician confirmed that i’m negative and healthy.
It pissed me off, so i called them and asked for an explanation, mentioning that i have the O-negative blood type, which is in high demand. They told me that it is Standard Procedure and advised to wait one year and call again.
I won’t tell the long story of the bureaucracy and the misunderstandings on the way, but after a year i did that test and today i got the results. False positive again. They don’t want my blood, even though they know that i’m healthy and that it can save someones life in case the bank runs out of O-negative, which often happens, especially in Israel, with all the explosions and the wars, not to mention the numerous car accidents. Standard Procedure, they say.
I am not a doctor, but even they admit that it’s not a matter of science but rather of bureaucracy. Here’s a proof that bureaucracy kills. Now i feel really bad, even though i probably did my best here. The best you can is good enough, you say? I am not convinced.
Aharoni in Unicode 