Can you donate blood if you have had Guillain-Barre?!

Yes

They will ask her and you separately about any medications that you take and any illness that you have, or any major illness that you have had.

If they fail to ask specifically about GB which they may, I'd recommend that she simply tell them that she had GB. The donor has a responsibility to make sure that safety is maintained. There's nothing embarrassing about having or having had GB as there are many ways to get it including food poisoning, or infections with virus or bacteria.

GB is not generally considered infective, and she may have gotten it due to the Swine Flu vaccine of long ago as many did. To this day they still do not know if it was the vaccine, or possible bacterial contamination in some of the vaccines. I do not know if they would use her blood as "whole blood" which is probably the way yours will be used.

But this does not matter, even people who are HIV positive can give blood and the Red Cross will not refuse it. Sometimes certain meds or past or current infections make the blood unusable for whole blood, but it still may be usable to extract platelets, clotting factors, or many other "blood components, all of which may save a life.

If you have or might have something that makes your blood unusable such as having had a relative who had CJD (human variant of Mad Cow Disease) your blood will not be used. I believe that you are then given the option of donating or not. If you choose to donate, that blood will be incinerated. They give you the chance of donating to protect your medical information. For instance let's say you became HIV + because of a transfusion in another country, and your entire office makes a big deal about everyone going--to not go can sometimes be construed as "having something bad."

When concerned tell all--your interview should be alone, your mother would not be allowed to be there even if both of you desire that, and should be done with privacy. The person doing the interview will define what issues "may" be there or are there, and a decision on how to use the blood will be made then by a specialist, or later by their medical people proficient in making those decisions.

If you have a definitive problem that makes your blood totally unusable you will be told, but even then, if you return next your "with your office group," they will still take your blood and that way cast no doubts about you by refusing.

Hope this helps.

http://chapters.redcross.org/ky/rivervalley/eligibility.htm

nope...