Two people, including a 22-year-old foreign student from Nigeria, have died after donating plasma at a Winnipeg collecting center that pays people for their contributions.
Health Canada is looking into the fatalities. It said it got two reports of plasma donors dying from bad responses, one in October 2021 and the other on January 30, 2026.
The federal authority says it is still looking into these claims and has not found a link between the plasma collection and deaths. The firm that manages the center says it has “no reason to believe” they are connected.
Friends say that 22-year-old Rodiyat Alabi died on October 25 after going to the Grifols Plasma Donation Center on Taylor Avenue to give plasma. She was constantly in a good mood. Mary Ann Chika, one of her close friends, remarked, “She had so many dreams, especially when she came to Canada.” “She meant a lot to me.”
Alabede is from Nigeria and moved to Winnipeg in 2022 to enroll to the University of Winnipeg to become a social worker.
Chika wasn’t there when her buddy went to Grifols, but she was the one who recognized Alabede in the hospital after she died.
She stated the physicians didn’t have much to say, but they did tell her that Alabede’s heart stopped beating while she was getting plasma at the center. And Chika said that she had already died when she got to the hospital.
Health Canada said that the second recorded death happened on January 30 after a donation at Grifols’ Innovation Drive site.
A Grifols official said in an email that an internal study was done and that “based on the information available at this time, we have no reason to believe that there is a correlation between the donors’ passing and plasma donation.”
According to Grifols’ website, plasma donors might get paid up to $100 for each donation. They also pay more for donations that happen more often. This includes a $50 bonus for every 10 donations collected in six weeks.
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