Canada calls for probe into student's death after plasma donation

Patient advocates in Canada are calling for a fresh investigation into the death of a young woman following a plasma donation, describing it as a 'perfect storm' of lax safety protocols and poorly trained staff, and warning of 'systemic issues' at plasma donation centers across the country.

Rodiyat Alabede, 22, was an international student at the University of Winnipeg. She died of cardiac arrest shortly after donating plasma in October 2025 at a facility operated by Spanish healthcare company Grifols. An initial investigation by Health Canada found no link between the donation and her death.

However, on June 11, activists alleged 'significant medical discrepancies' between her autopsy report, completed within two days of her death, and a medical summary drafted by Health Canada on March 27. They accuse the federal agency of a 'cover-up' of details surrounding her death.

Kat Lanteigne, a safe blood advocate representing the Alabede family, said Alabede's autopsy results revealed she had cardiomegaly (an enlarged heart). This condition would place 'immense strain' on her body during the donation process.

'We don't know if they properly screened her. We don't know if they responded properly to her donation,' Lanteigne said, citing 'shocking' Health Canada inspection reports issued shortly after Alabede's death.

'They had staff taking plasma from donors who didn't know how to safely extract plasma. They didn't know how to respond to error codes on the machines, which require stopping the procedure. These [failures] are so severe that... now we have more questions than answers.'

Health Canada inspection reports reveal numerous deficiencies, including poor staff training, failures in standard operating procedures, poor recordkeeping, and Grifols' failure to rectify past issues. In some cases, staff were allowed to retake tests up to four times if they failed, testing knowledge of operating procedures and safe machine use, before corrective action was taken. Questions remained unchanged with each retest. Reports also found staff did not halt plasma collection when machine alarms sounded.

Lanteigne stated: 'When Rodiyat was donating, we believe alarms went off to instruct staff to stop the donation, and that may not have been followed.' Whether or not Alabede knew about her condition, 'Health Canada and Grifols had a duty of care to ensure every aspect of her plasma donation was investigated.'

Grifols did not immediately respond to Lanteigne's comments. However, earlier this week, in response to a Globe and Mail report on the November inspection report, Grifols said it had submitted detailed action plans to Health Canada for immediate implementation and would work closely with regulators to meet licensing requirements.

Deaths from plasma donation are extremely rare. Only three fatalities have been recorded in Canada in the past decade, all in Manitoba. The Guardian has previously reported on Grifols' failures in inspection reports at other facilities, including 'validation, calibration, cleaning or maintenance of critical equipment not always adequate' and records 'not always accurate, complete, legible, clear and/or easily retrievable.' Of eight recorded non-compliances for blood tests since 2016, Grifols-operated facilities accounted for half.

Lanteigne said she and others have written to Prime Minister Mark Carney, demanding a reopened investigation into Alabede's death and the suspension of Grifols' license pending review. Three months after Alabede's death, another person died while donating plasma at a different Winnipeg site.

Health Canada said it made immediate visits to plasma collection centers after each reported death, and records showed standard operating procedures were followed. However, in an internal email chain between health officials from February, the Guardian reported that Health Canada's Director General of Compliance Enforcement expressed concerns after the second death at a plasma donation site. In the March medical summary, Health Canada stated 'no link' between the plasma donation and Alabede's death. But Lanteigne said there were 'profound' discrepancies between the medical examiner's report and the report Health Canada distributed to legislators, including significantly differing volumes of plasma collected. The Guardian viewed a copy of the autopsy report, with permission from the family representative, to confirm the differences.