The blood reserves in Bavaria are scarce. The Bavarian Red Cross (BRK) is happy about every blood donor; In Bavaria alone, around 2,000 canned goods are needed every day. Marco Frimberger from Pentling near Regensburg wanted to help the sick and injured with his blood – but was refused as a donor. Apparently because the 20-year-old has a slight intellectual disability.
His father Thomas Frimberger is his legal guardian and outraged by the rejection his son had to experience. “Marco has been involved in traffic for years as a scooter driver, he is currently studying for his driver’s license and doing internships in the private sector,” he explains. “But he’s not allowed to donate blood?”
In July, Marco wanted to register as a first-time donor with the blood donation service of the BRK at the Jahnstadion in Regensburg. His father, who has been a blood donor himself for ten years, accompanied him to the appointment; he wanted to donate himself right away. “The preliminary investigation went well, there were no objections,” reports Thomas Frimberger. Marco himself doesn’t want to talk about the incident anymore because the frustration is too great.
During the conversation that followed, the doctor told them that Marco was not eligible for a donation. Because he has a legal guardian, Frimberger was said there. The doctor then sent them home, which was “very embarrassing for Marco”. “It was in a large room with three doctors, people were lining up behind us. Everyone noticed, we felt like lepers,” says the father.
Each rejected donor will then receive a letter explaining the reason for the rejection. The letter to Marco Frimberger, which the SZ has received, states that the refusal was not due to legal support – as claimed by the doctor. “There is no such law,” says the letter. And: people with a mental or physical disability should not be excluded from donating blood in principle. The decision about donation suitability, so the reasoning, must ultimately always be made by the donor doctor on site.
“It is very important for both the donor and the recipient of the donation that the person willing to donate understands the nature of the voluntary donation,” says BRK spokesman Patric Nohe when asked by the SZ. “It is therefore possible that the donor doctor on site had the impression that the young man was unable to understand the main features of the blood donation sufficiently.”
The main features include, for example, that the person can fill out the donor questionnaire himself and carry out what is known as confidential self-exclusion without the help of a person of trust. Self-exclusion means that the donor must independently withdraw from a donation if he is of the opinion that his blood should not be used. For example, because he was in a malaria risk area, has a fresh tattoo or had a professional teeth cleaning. The doctor apparently did not trust Marco Frimberger to have this independence.
“Marco hesitated a bit with the answers in the doctor’s interview, I then supported him in the conversation,” says Frimberger. “But he made it clear that he wants to donate voluntarily and understands what he’s doing.” He understands the rejection by the doctor as disregard and discrimination. “Marco is physically in top shape and can bike 100 kilometers without any problems. I see no reason why he shouldn’t donate blood too,” says his father. For him it is clear: as long as his son is not allowed to donate blood, he doesn’t want to anymore. He returned his blood donation card.