Thursday, February 10, 2011

DIY Blood Transfusion...... Really?

It was with some bemusement that I read today that an Italian professional cyclist named Riccardo Ricco (nickname "the cobra") is seriously ill in hospital with kidney failure after allegedly giving himself a DIY blood transfusion with a blood sample that was three weeks old......    the idiot apparently told medics that he was concerned that the blood was "stale"....

For the uninitiated, the reason for this bizarre undertaking is almost certainly (innocent untl proven guilty I guess) because he is "doping".  As I understand things the athlete "dopes up" with whatever PED or stimulant they are using and then when approaching an event basically replace the "doped" blood with a "clean" sample which has been drawn earlier and (usually!) properly stored.  Either that or they simply add back blood with an artificially high hematocrit to boost hemoglobin levels and oxygen capacity.  This same guy was previously banned for 20 months in 2008 because he tested positive for epo during the Tour de France.

What kind of dumb ass self-administers a blood transfusion?   What kind of even-dumber ass self-administers blood that hasn't been properly stored?   I guess professional cycling is in a mess!





No, doping's not for me, I would never......   no......   wait a minute........   now that I think of it.......    there is a product that claims to be full of iron that I frequently.....     no, not transfuse.......     infuse........    in large quantities..........
 
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Better not tell The Puppeteer!  :-)

2 comments:

  1. Awesome! I used to sell EPO, an amazing drug for renal patients, who would often be incredibly anaemic, a very debilitating problem. The drug got a lot of bad publicity from these muppets who abused it for cycling.

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  2. Wow! I have been missing a few comments - sorry for the slow feedback! Did you work for Amgen or J & J? (I'm in the biotech field myself).

    It is a shame that some of these products get bad publicity because of.... let's call it "off label" use!

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