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Imagine getting paid thousands of dollars just for being sick. A Utah company says it's possible, and now people are trading their blood for big bucks.
A healthy person can donate their plasma and make anywhere from $30 to $50 a donation. But this is different; a sick person, someone with Hepatitis A or Rheumatoid Arthritis, can make up to $1,000 a donation.
Mike Fuhriman said, "Here, it was something I was missing work for, that I was miserable and sick, you know for a month with a fever straight."
Mike Fuhriman had something called cytomegalovirus. With some help from Springville-based Biolynk he also has $3,700 to show for it, not to mention four free trips to California. That's where he donated his plasma at a center that's licensed to take it.
Richard Davis, with Biolynk, said, "The FDA requires that whenever a test is run in a laboratory, the patient's blood sample has to have a control group that is run alongside it." If the blood isn't available, companies can't manufacturer test kits, and doctors can't diagnose patients.
"When they go to order a test for their patient, it's not going to be available. We've had some manufacturers who have gone three and four months on backorder with hepatitis test kits because sometimes they just can't find them," Davis said.
And for that reason, Hepatitis A is the illness that's paying the most right now. Toxoplasmosis pays well too. In fact, Biolynk has a patient outside of Utah with that illness who has been donating for almost a year. "She's done really well in the program. She's probably made over $70,000," Davis said.
Mike Fuhriman entered the program with a good dose of skepticism, but now he's more than happy he did it. "Honestly, I wish I could get sick again. If I could get the illness again, I would do it," he said. "There were doctor bills. Thos got paid off, and still enough left over to buy me an XBOX 360. So, you know, we had fun."
Timing plays a big part in whether or not a person can donate and for how long. Biolynk is the only company in Utah and one of just a few in the country that does this.
E-mail: corton@ksl.com
