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Comment by njsubedi | Hacker News Reader

>Platelets can be stored for four days if shaken to prevent solidification, while red blood cells can be kept for 20 days at low temperatures.

I didn't know that the shelf life of blood is that short. Does this mean it is possible that some portion of blood collected from "blood donation programs" goes waste? Because, in our country (Nepal), dozens of such programs are conducted by the Red Cross all around the country.

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A doctor in charge of a blood extraction campaign explained to me that this is exactly the reason why there is a constant high demand of blood donors. Between hospitals there are exchanges daily of blood (you might have a certain blood type that another hospital needs right now), but a lot of blood does get wasted, because of the short times it has.

They also separate blood in different kinds (platelets I think it was the term) since it can be storaged for longer, but is not as useful as a full blood transfer.

Do you know if there is any kind of inventory management system that helps blood banks balance their supplies?

I don't know the answer to this, but if they do, they should share this information with the public so the public can be aware and more readily volunteer when needed.

They typically operate regionally.

> Does this mean it is possible that some portion of blood collected from "blood donation programs" goes waste?

Yes.

For any system which regularly collects some resource and distributes it somewhere else, some amount of that resource goes to waste. It is impossible to absolutely eliminate this. Therefore, all resource-distribution systems expect some level of waste.

This reads like you're unsubtly telling OP "your question is dumb" while also not answering the real (intriguing, nuanced) underlying question.

I don't intend to tell OP that their question is dumb. But I am definitely completely missing the underlying question if there is one.

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