Death of A Chronic Smoker After Blood Donation: A Rare Case Report

A blood donation is a process in which a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusions or made into medications by a process called fractionation. Various problems are encountered during and after the process of blood donation. In this paper we present an unusual case of death of a young male having history of chronic smoking, within two hours of blood donation. His pre-donation vitals were within normal range and he was not having any significant previous medical and family history. On autopsy and after histopathology, report revealed organizing thrombus in left coronary artery, partially blocking the lumen with atherosclerotic changes in the ascending aorta with pulmonary oedema. The present paper is a humble effort suggesting the preventive measures and care to be taken by healthcare persons towards blood donors like, rest to donor in lying position for minimum of 15 - 20 minutes, providing him high sugar snack, extra fluid supplement as well advising donor not to smoke for at least 3 hours after blood donation and not to do strenuous activity for minimum 5 hours.