What to Expect

Your first step to giving blood is to fill out a donor registration form. Filling out the registration form entails providing some basic information such as your name, address, age, and answering a series of questions regarding disease history, medication usage and recent travel. You must also show us your photo or signature ID, or your bar-coded NYBC Donor ID Card. A brief medical history is taken, including a check of your blood pressure and temperature, and a drop of blood is analyzed for hemoglobin (iron) content.

If you meet all donor requirements, you move on to a donor bed. The actual donation procedure is done by skilled, specially trained technicians and takes 10 to 12 minutes for a whole blood donation. Other procedures may take a little longer. All materials, including the needle used for your donation, are new, sterile, disposable and used only once by you for your blood donation. There is no risk of any disease transmission to a donor.

You will give a little less than one pint of whole blood in a standard donation. The average adult has between eight and twelve pints of blood and can easily spare one. In fact, your body replaces blood volume, or plasma, within 24 hours, and red cells need about four to eight weeks for complete replacement. Plan to spend about an hour in total donating blood.