In a hurting economy, selling plasma is part of their financial lifeblood
On a steamy October day in the town of Orange, a white van with an Uber sign in the front window ran out of gas in the parking lot of a plasma donation center.
Call it a snapshot, if you will, of an economy that for many folks continues to sputter.
A woman named Crystal, who had just sold her plasma, lent a one-gallon gas can to the couple in the van. Crystal, 28, told me she carries the can in her 1998 Nissan because it's tough to keep up with the bills and she's often running on fumes.
The couple with the van were in a hurry and I didn't get much information out of them, except that the man sometimes drives for Uber and the woman has a rare blood type, so she makes decent money having Biomat USA draw it through a needle at regular intervals.
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Jessica Wade has developed scar tissue on her arm from so many needle pricks. The 25-year-old Cal State Long Beach student is studying to be a teacher, works 40 hours a week at Starbucks, lives in a studio apartment with her working boyfriend and donates plasma twice a week.
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"This is my first time," a middle-aged woman named Elizabeth told me at the Lake Balboa Biomat USA. She said she took time off from a job to care for her ailing mother, and now she can't find work.
"If you would have told me five years ago that I'd end up in here, I wouldn't have believed it. It's reality, and it's humbled me for sure."
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-1025-lopez-plasma-20151025-column.html
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