Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood

by Rose George

In Luxembourg only 14 percent of people give blood; over the border in France, it’s 44 percent.

Unless you are a plastic surgeon. When the surgeon Iain Whitaker did a telephone survey of all the sixty-two plastic surgery units across the UK in 2002, 80 percent of the fifty that replied had used leeches postoperatively in the salvage of compromised free flaps or digital replants within the last five years. Three units had used leeches more than sixteen times a year; fifteen had used them up to five times.57 There are abundant leech papers in journals of plastic surgery, maxillofacial surgery, and microsurgery detailing proper leech procedure. Leeches are judged to be effective in the salvage of various essential body parts such as fingers, ears, nipples, nasal tips, and penises. (Leeches were not used in the famous penis reconstruction of John Wayne Bobbitt but were apparently on standby.)

globally HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death of women aged fifteen to forty-four.

Human and animal blood is the thirteenth most traded commodity in the world, worth $252 billion.

Over ten years from 2006, the number of people selling plasma grew threefold, to 32.6 million.

the FDA allows Americans to sell their plasma up to twice a week (because plasma contains no cells, the body can replace it within forty-eight hours) and the payment is usually $30 to $50.47

“The practice of medicine is a political act however you choose to do it.”

Men would brag about how long and how much. Young boys would talk about it as the envied beginning of manhood. Gifts, religious ceremonies, family dinners, and stag parties would mark the day. To prevent monthly work loss among the powerful, Congress would fund a National Institute of Dysmenorrhea. Sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free. Of course, some men would still pay for the prestige of such commercial brands as Paul Newman Tampons, Muhammad Ali’s Rope-a-Dope Pads, John Wayne Maxi Pads, and Joe Namath Jock Shields “For Those Light Bachelor Days.” Street guys would invent slang (“He’s a three-pad man”) and “give fives” on the corner with some exchange like, “Man you lookin’ good!” “Yeah, man, I’m on the rag!”