Posted by Kendall Raine on May 14, 2001 at 18:00:19:
In Reply to: Blood Donation posted by randy54 on May 13, 2001 at 08:39:45:
The research suggests post dive (long term) damage is to bone, retinal, nerve and brain matter, not to blood constituents, per se. RBC's are pretty short-lived anyway. I suppose you could theoretically pass along venous gas bubbles through blood donation, but you'd have to give it directly to a donor within a few hours post dive. Since, even in that unlikely event, you would be passing along venous gas bubbles at 1 ATA, the recipient would probably simply filter bubbles out harmlessly anyway unless the recipient had some massive shunt.
I wouldn't worry about it.