Directed Donation

Directed donation is a blood donation made for specific patient by a donor. Usually it is family members or friends who do directed donation for a known patient. Though there is no medical evidence that shows directed donations are safer some recipients feel more comfortable selecting their own donors. Directed donations may not be appropriate for emergency procedures since it takes time to fully test and process each unit of blood. Patient may arrange extra donors from his friends circle or family members as some may defer while screening the donors when they fail to meet the criteria. Similarly when more products are needed, there should be more donors. Patients must present a prescription from their hospital with all needed details like patient’s name, type of products, number of units etc.

If the date for surgery changes for some reason all those donations (autologus or directed) may be used for the community blood supply.

Patient’s blood type	Donors blood type
O+	O+ or O-
A+	A+, A-, O+ or O-
B+	B+, B-, O+ or O-
AB+	All blood types
O-	O-
A-	A- or O-
B-	B- or O-
AB-	AB-, A-, B- or AB-