Canada health officials are investigating the deaths of two people who donated plasma at for-profit clinics in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The deaths occurred just over three months apart. One person was a 22-year-old international student studying to become a social worker, the other’s identity was not known.
Health Canada, the federal department that regulates plasma clinics, said it had received reports from the clinics where the donations took place about deadly adverse reactions after procedures in October 2025 and January 2026. The clinics are required to report such events.
The patients died after donating plasma at clinics run by Grifols, a Spanish health care company that has 17 locations across Canada, including two in Winnipeg. Health Canada said it dispatched staff members to the clinics for inspections after the deaths.
Donating plasma is similar to donating blood, but once the blood is drawn, plasma, a pale yellow liquid, is separated from red blood cells, and the red blood cells are returned to the donor’s body. The process, used to obtain antibody-rich plasma, is generally considered extremely safe.
Tens of millions of paid plasma donations are made in the United States each year. Though comparable numbers are not available in Canada, the country has seen more plasma clinics open since 2022, when Grifols entered into an agreement with Canadian Blood Services, the nonprofit organization that manages the national blood supply, to “increase sourcing” of plasma. Plasma-based medicinal products are a significant and growing market fueled by increasing demands for the products, which offer lifesaving and often irreplaceable treatments for many chronic and rare conditions.
The company advertises that regular donors can collect around 6,000 Canadian dollars, or about $4,400, per year. Two donors who spoke with The Times said they received about 40 Canadian dollars for the first donation and 75 for the second one, if they came back the same week.
A statement from Grifols expressed condolences to the families of the people who died, but said that based on the currently available information, “We have no reason to believe that there is a correlation between the donors’ passing and plasma donation.”
The statement said that each donor undergoes an extensive health history evaluation and physical exam before being deemed eligible to donate. Grifols said it had reported the incidents within 72 hours as required and has launched its own internal investigation.
Stephanie Holfeld, the executive director of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Manitoba, said that the person who died in 2025 became unresponsive during a plasma donation at the clinic and died shortly after.
Neither the examiner’s office nor Health Canada provided the names of the donors, citing privacy laws, but friends of the person who died in October identified her as Rodiyat Alabede, 22, an international student whose parents are from Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, and who did volunteer work in the Muslim Nigerian community.
“She had a motherly side to her, she was protective and sweet,” said Chioma Ijoma, a nursing student and friend to Ms. Alabede, who also called her hard working. “She never gave up, even when things got difficult for her.”
Ms. Holfeld, from the medical examiner’s office, said Ms. Alabede’s death has not yet been documented as being linked to a plasma donation, and that “certain investigative steps may still be in progress.”
Plasma’s immunoglobulins, or antibodies, bolster the immune system and are used to prevent infections, while its clotting factors help control bleeding after trauma and are used to treat patients with bleeding disorders and liver disease.Plasma donors are warned they may experience side effects like fatigue, dehydration, dizziness, bruising and fainting.
Reports of deaths associated with plasma donation in the U.S. are rare. In 2020, The Miami Herald reported that several dozen deaths in the United States may have been associated with a possibly faulty plasmapheresis machine, which separates plasma from red blood cells.
Grifols is also facing a lawsuit filed in July 2025 by a donor in Winnipeg, a 43-year-old aircraft technician with the Canadian Armed Forces, who sustained an acute kidney injury that he claims occurred when a machine error during a plasma donation caused him to be injected with red blood cells that had ruptured. He was hospitalized for about a week and continues to undergo renal monitoring, according to court documents.
The company has asked a judge to dismiss the case and denied the allegations in a court document filed in September 2025, saying the donor was “fully informed of the risks and side effects” of the procedure and gave his consent to proceed.
Patient safety advocates said they were surprised to learn of the deaths through media reports, and that neither the company nor the health authorities had notified the public, even though the first death occurred nearly five months ago.
“The public has a right to be made aware of the risks involved with going to these centers,” said Curtis Brandell, a blood safety proponent who is president of the independent British Columbia chapter of the Canadian Hemophilia Society, and who has relatives who were infected with H.I.V. and hepatitis C in the 1980s through contaminated blood products.
“Because of my family history I know the bad outcomes that happen when a blood agency keeps things secret,” he said. “Transparency is key not only for safety but for public trust.”
The tainted blood crisis in the 1980s, which infected some 2,000 people with H.I.V. and more than 30,000 people with hepatitis C, led to a major government investigation. In 1997 the Krever Commission recommended, among other reforms, that Canada not allow a for-profit blood supply. Canada rebuilt its blood donation system in the aftermath, establishing Canadian Blood Services, and Héma-Québec in Quebec, both nonprofit organizations.
The deaths, first reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, focus attention on potential health issues associated with plasma donation, which has long been considered a safe practice despite a paucity of rigorous research into the health effects on donors who are paid for the product and offered bonus payments to donate as frequently as allowed.
The company has a “Super Heroes Rewards Program” incentivizing frequent donations and offering bonuses to regulars. On Monday Grifols imposed a new waiting period between donations, but still permits two per week.
Shannon VanRaes contributed reporting from Winnipeg.
Vjosa Isai is a reporter for The Times based in Toronto, where she covers news from across Canada.
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