LifeSource - Chicagoland's Blood Center

Your autologous blood donation will be specially tagged and bar coded with information about your hospital, date of surgery and other information necessary to get your blood to you when you need it.

Your surgeon must complete a LifeSource order form for Autologous Blood, containing the following information

Date of surgery
Number of units needed
Type of blood product
Hospital where the surgery will be performed

Ask your physician to recommend an appropriate iron supplement for you. We recommend 325mg of ferrous sulfate or ferrous gluconate. Your iron supplement should be taken with meals two to three times a day starting one week prior to your first donation and continuing until you are admitted to the hospital.

Call the LifeSource Special Donations Department at
(847) 299-7386 to schedule your appointment(s). When you call, you will be scheduled to donate one unit at a time. We recommend that you wait seven days between donations. Allow yourself at least one hour for each donation.

At the time of the donation, you must bring a positive form of identification such as a driver’s license, health insurance card or government issued ID.
You will be required to read and sign a medical history form and a consent form.
A member of the LifeSource phlebotomy staff will check your iron level, blood pressure, temperature and pulse.
Your donation will be collected by one of our staff.
A special label will be prepared containing your name, date of birth and hospital. You will be asked to verify information; a similar label will be applied to each of your donations.
LifeSource performs a series of tests on each donation. Any positive test results will be reported to your physician.

Donors must be old enough to cooperate with the donation procedure (donors 16 years old or younger must be accompanied by a parent or guardian at each donation)

Some medical conditions will keep you from being able to make autologous donations. However, many of the qualifications for donation to the community blood supply do not apply for autologous donations, which will enable you to possibly still donate for yourself. If you have any questions about eligibility, ask your physician or call the LifeSource Special Donations Department at (847) 299-7386.