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Originally Posted by mannythedog
He also mentioned that when they took his blood today, it was a deep purple, not a bright red. I know that red is good oxygen exchange, is purple the opposite? ie: lousy exchange. {feed back please}
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Scott,
Fully oxygenated blood is bright red. Oxygen-depleted blood is dark red, maybe purplish. So normally a blood sample taken from an artery will be bright red.
Blood from a vein would be the darker red, and the reason blood always looks bright red when we bleed, even though it usually comes from a vein, is that it mixes with oxygen as soon as it's exposed to air. By the way, "blue blood" seen in veins under the skin is a result of how light is absorbed/reflected by skin, so that's not relevant to oxygen level.
There's an easier way to get the facts than by observing the color yourself: your father's HGB (hemoglobin) count. Hemoglobin molecules are the blood's oxygen carriers and low oxygen (anemia) is indicated by a low HGB count.