All establishments that collect plasma are regulated by Health Canada and must report to the federal regulator if a donor has experienced a serious reaction during donation or within 72 hours following a donation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Like getting struck by lightning’: doctor<\/p>\n
The reports of two deaths in such a short span surprised experts, who say plasma donation is safe, citing someone dying being akin to getting struck by lightning.<\/p>\n
Dr. Ryan Zarychanski, a hematologist who specializes in blood disorders, says it is extremely rare for someone to die following plasma collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After over a decade in the field, he said the worst reaction he has seen was someone fainting while donating.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The probability of someone getting very seriously harmed by donating plasma is like getting struck by lightning, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zarychanski pointed to a few scenarios that could cause serious harm, such as malfunctioning equipment, a procedure not followed appropriately or if the donor wasn’t healthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He says it leads to a lot of questions about how this happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Are donors screened properly?\u2026 Are staff who do the procedure trained properly? Are the machines working correctly? Is there proper oversight of programs in general? he said.<\/p>\n
Grifols says safety their top priority\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Grifols declined to disclose any further information regarding what caused the deaths, saying they wanted to respect the review process and the donors’ families.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson said they were saddened to learn of the recent passing of two of our donors.<\/p>\n
The health and safety of our donors is our ultimate priority, the spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
Every donor undergoes an extensive health history evaluation and physical examination before being deemed eligible to donate.<\/p>\n
![\"Friends](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/grifols.png\")
<\/p>\n
Friends say Rodiyat Alabede went to the Grifols location on Taylor Avenue to give a paid plasma donation. <\/p>\n
Photo:\u00a0(Justin Fraser\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Health Canada immediately conducted on-site visits at the plasma collection centres following each report, a Health Canada spokesperson said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
The spokesperson said they examined records related to the incidents, verified that standard operating procedures were being followed and that there were sufficient qualified staff present.<\/p>\n
They are still in the process of reviewing the information and will take action to address any areas where the clinics are not complying, the spokesperson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Must be between 17-68 to give plasma<\/p>\n
It is up to each province to decide if someone can collect a payment for plasma donation. Only three provinces \u2014 Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec \u2014 have legislation in place banning paid plasma clinics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However,\u00a0centres have opened in Ontario\u00a0(new window)<\/a>\u00a0following a 2022 partnership between Canadian Blood Services and Grifols because of legislation that exempts CBS from the ban.\u00a0<\/p>\n People can also choose to donate their plasma to Canadian Blood Services, the non-profit that manages the national supply of blood products for all the provinces and territories, excluding Quebec.<\/p>\n Plasma is a protein-rich liquid that helps treat bleeding disorders, liver diseases and cancer. It is collected through a machine that draws blood from a person’s arm, separates the plasma, and returns other components to the person. <\/p>\n Photo:\u00a0Radio-Canada \/ Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Dumas<\/p>\n Health Canada immediately conducted on-site visits at the plasma collection centres following each report, a Health Canada spokesperson said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n The spokesperson said they examined records related to the incidents, verified that standard operating procedures were being followed and that there were sufficient qualified staff present.<\/p>\n They are still in the process of reviewing the information and will take action to address any areas where the clinics are not complying, the spokesperson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Must be between 17-68 to give plasma<\/p>\n It is up to each province to decide if someone can collect a payment for plasma donation. Only three provinces \u2014 Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec \u2014 have legislation in place banning paid plasma clinics.\u00a0<\/p>\n However,\u00a0centres have opened in Ontario\u00a0(new window)<\/a>\u00a0following a 2022 partnership between Canadian Blood Services and Grifols because of legislation that exempts CBS from the ban.\u00a0<\/p>\n People can also choose to donate their plasma to Canadian Blood Services, the non-profit that manages the national supply of blood products for all the provinces and territories, excluding Quebec.<\/p>\n Kristin Annable\u00a0(new window)<\/a>,\u00a0Michelle Allan\u00a0(new window)<\/a>,\u00a0Vera-Lynn Kubinec\u00a0(new window)<\/a>\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0CBC News\u00a0\u00b7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CBC News has learned two people \u2014 including a 22-year-old international student \u2014 died after giving plasma at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-529670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Plasma](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/unite-plasma-don-sac-6378.jpg\")
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