[Fiction question] How much blood can you draw in how short a time from a 10-year-old child?

You could certainly draw 2 more ounces with no harm.

Average 10 year old has 7 pints of blood or 112 ounces (I think)
Shouldn’t be too bad, might be a little light headed…

Then…how much would have to be drawn each time for the second drawing to be risky? I found blood donor sites that said a person had to be at least 17. But this is not about a donor. This is fiction, and there’s another reason. What if it were four and four? Or more? And what’s the risk?

Male
10 years old
51 inches tall, 70.4 lbs

Total volume (clinical + research) maximum volume (mL) drawn in a 30-day period

124–140 mL
or
4.7339631582460004 ounces

might be bad

Edit

Wow, thanks, @tyrantxseries! Where did you find that?

So he is fine with the two ounces drawn, but drawing another two ounces right away could be bad for him…because…?

(Wait, 10+ ounces in 30 days is a lot less than 2.88 ounces per day.)

[Edit: Now I am getting confused by the changes]

Why is he needing blood drawn?

The reason doesn’t matter. This is a story. Fiction.

I want the second drawing to be risky so that it is a brave act for him to agree. And I need to know what the risk is.

From a download:
CMRC IRB MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE TOTAL BLOOD DRAW VOLUMES (CLINICAL + RESEARCH)

Are you writing a book?

lol how is “Edit” a “Great Answer”?

I do not know.

I was thinking if the boy had some kind of condition it could increase the risk.

@Jeruba: Just how long is this opus? Is there an end in sight, a dénoument, or simply “full stop…to be continued.”

@gailcalled, this is ny NaNoWriMo novel. The commitment is to write a 50,000-word draft during the month of November. That’s 1667 words a day. I am on day 28, and I passed the 50k mark this afternoon. HURRAY! I am in my last chapter.

This is nothing like anything I have ever written before. It is reckless and irresponsible. It is preposterous rubbish. It is raw invention in a lot of places (but uncompromising in its realistic detail). And it is also hella fun.

@faye, oh, I see. It is not a clinical sample. He is fine and healthy and normal. His blood just happens to possess special properties that were activated by a chemical process, and those properties can save the bad guy’s life. He gave the first sample willingly, but there was a screwup, and now it is a matter of potential sacrifice for him to offer a second sample. Will he put himself at risk for this monster who killed his mother’s parents? Because if he doesn’t…the bad guy is going to die without giving up the secret that his mother wants the answer to.

@Jeruba : Your brain seems to be in 5th gear while mine is in 2nd, but don’t I remember at least 47 different plot lines? And since you have two days left, are you going to edit, or simply sauve qui peut?

My mind was boggled when someone added “Fiction” in front of their question and it was not you. Just had to get that off my chest.

@gailcalled, oh, there are a few. I never do anything simply when a more complicated option presents itself. This is made even more interesting by virtue of the fact that I planned nothing, just dropped plot points hither and yon and then spent considerable time further on trying to think of some plausible explanation that would fit them. This is sort of like trying to make a running vehicle out of a bicycle wheel, a carburetor, and some horseshoes. That’s how I wound up inventing some bogus medicine in which the boy’s blood contains an antidote to the virus (the spate of infectious diseases) laid on the bad guy 20 years ago by the boy’s grandmother, a missionary doctor in South Africa, where the bad guy was stealing diamonds and smuggling human flesh out of the country to finance his mansion, his boats, his vice-ridden lifestyle, his fancy watch…

I also wove six or seven separate backstories into it (farm in 1969 New England, Y2K in a Moscow bar, etc.) and made them all relevant to the present six hours of unremitting mind-boggling drama.

BUT my inner editor is on leave until this is over.

And then I may simply say, well, that was one hell of a writing exercise and I learned a lot, and that’s that. Then it’s back to real stuff.

If this book actually sold, I don’t think I would ever get over my embarrassment.

Oh my God, every fiction question you ask makes me more and more interested in this story. Will you ever let any of us read it? Because I would love to.

If this book actually sold, I don’t think I would ever get over my embarrassment.

Could be time to start considering a pen name or two, like Salvatore Albert Lombino/‘Evan Hunter/Ed McBain.

Per Wikipedia: “While successful and well-known as Evan Hunter, he was even better known as Ed McBain, a name he used for most of his crime fiction, beginning in 1956.”

Funny thing was that he wrote the crime fiction to put food on the table without tarnishing his good name as a “serious novelist,” but we remember him much more as Ed McBain than by any other name.

Oh, thank you, @MacBean, I’m delighted that you’re interested! In practical terms, the answer has to be no, for reasons I explained here. But quite a bit of it is on display here on fluther under the fiction questions, in bits of synopsis even if not in more than a couple of excerpts.

@Darwin, that’s a thought. If I had a reputation to sully, I’d work on that angle. So far there does not seem to be any danger that I am going to become known for anything.

@faye, on second thought, maybe I could give the boy some kind of little condition. What would increase the risk while still leaving him healthy in appearance? Are you a nurse, by the way?

@Jeruba: To be merciful, give him acne and dandruff only, please.