For those of you planning on donating plasma, here is a precautionary tale for you. I had gotten occasional from a company called BioLife Plasma Services in Ft. Wayne where you can donate plasma and get paid for it. Since we don't have blood drives here that coincide when I can go I thought I would give this a try as I like to pay it forward with and also pay back any blood that family and relatives have needed. Made the appointment for 12/21, went down, went smoothly (if a little longe than I expected), got paid and went home for a nice holiday.
Went back on 1/11 to donate again and my fingerprint at the kiosk would not work and even tried a couple of different kiosks before having a tech check it out and after a few keystrokes he told me to see the nurse. Puzzled I went into her office and she showed me a graph that had them concerned-evidently my proteins were elevated (although my wife-a retired nurse-looked at the results and said I was well within the range) and that it could be a very early indication for CANCER.
Needless to say my heart sank but she said it was just a faint possibility and they would fax the info to my doctor for his perusal but for now, I was deferred from donating until it was cleared up. She got the contact info for my doctor, printed out everything and then I left.
The drive home was nerve wracking and after I got back to town I went to the doctor's office to see if they had gotten the fax yet and when they did to get it to him ASAP. I also called the donation clinic to make sure it had been sent but it went to voice mail. I went back the next morning and was told they still had not gotten the fax and had even tried the day before and that morning to call them about it with no results. I gave them my copy and they told me that would get it to the doctor after he was done with a patient.
As of this time, I don't know what will happen next but to say that I'm a bit scared is putting it mildly, but I think I am more angry than anything else-if this irregularity showed up the week after I donated, WHY WAS THERE NO CONTACT TO INFORM ME SO I COULD LET MY DOCTOR KNOW TO SEE IF THERE WAS SOMETHING THAT NEEDED TO BE DONE????
They pretty much sat on this for almost two weeks with no word to me-what would have happened if I had decided not to go back-would I have had a time bomb inside me waiting to go off in a month? Six months? A year?? I know I did not receive ANY communication from them since my visit and to say that these people screwed up is too mild-this is unacceptable, unprofessional and just plain cruel-they can't even return a f@#$ing phone call? How many others are in the same boat or might be? I sincerely hope that this is just a false flag and I have nothing to be worried about, but when you lose a sister to it, even years ago, you can't help but wonder...
I have filed a complaint with the BBB but I wanted to put this out there for those who might consider using this establishment-make sure any irregularities they might find are reported to you IMMEDIATELY instead of waiting for the next visit that might be weeks or months away, or never. read more