world blood donation day

Yesterday was the World Blood Donor Day (14 June 2018).

Kudos to Udaipurites for getting together to help their brother in a highly adverse situation. Recently, there was a crisis in the Blood bank of MB Hospital, Udaipur when the stock of blood came down to 77 units of blood including the 11 units that had been donated by the relatives and acquaintances of the patients. The 66 unit blood was of A+, B+, O+ and AB+ groups. 30 units were ready while 36 units were untested. This caused a big risk for those seriously injured in road accidents, complicated surgery, and blood deficiency cases. According to doctors, the situation was so bad that blood was procurement daily from places such as Bhilwara and Mount Abu. The hospital administration issued an alert to doctors that they should inform the patients that in case of an emergency, blood had to be procured by themselves.

Then the city woke up in response to a call by a local newspaper (Dainik Bhaskar) and organization such as Arjun Bagh, Samutkarsh Samiti, Bajrang Sena, Secure Meter, Mahesh Sewa Sansthan, Badi Sadri, Jain Mitra Mandal, Udaipur cement works for voluntary blood donation. ‘Raktadaan Jeevandaan camps were organized at several places and over 550 units of blood was collected in a short time. Then there was no need to get it from other places and it was possible to meet the daily demands of children Hospital (15 units) 240 registered thalassemia patients were (10-15 units, neurosurgery patients (10-15 units) patients in emergency (10-15 units) gynecology patients (8-10 units) and other patients (5 units). It had become difficult to meet the daily demand of 55 to 60 units, an adequate number of blood donors were not coming to the camps due to vacations in schools and colleges. Before this 50-60 units were being donated every day.

According to specialists, a healthy person can donate blood once in three months without feeling weak or any other physical problem. The donor should be in the 18-60 year age group and weight over 45 kg. He should not be a patient of serious diseases such as HIV AIDS, TB, Skin disease, Jaundice, Malaria or diabetes. His hemoglobin level should be not below 12.5 grams. He should not have had tattoo within the last one month.

Kappu- who has a world record in donating blood

According to Ravindra Pal Singh Kappu, who has set a record by donating blood over 81 times, blood donation saves lacs of human lives every year. Blood donation is the only means of securing this precious fluid that cannot be made through any process known so far. Social and religious organizations can do a lot in blood collection by enthusing their members to take part in this humanitarian activity at regular intervals. The youth can play an important role in ameliorating the pain of human being by donating blood in govt. or private blood banks in their neighborhood. It has several advantages. It keeps the level of iron normal and thus also helps in reducing the weight of the body. The biggest advantage, perhaps, is the feeling of satisfaction of doing something for the benefit of others.

According to Dr. Ramesh Joshi, Fr. Superintendent MB Hospital, Udaipur, the body contains 5-liter blood on average. The hemoglobin level should be between 12 and 16 grams. If it comes down to 2 to 2.5 grams, it is dangerous. This generally happens in cases of serious accidents. In addition to carrying oxygen and carbon dioxide to different parts of the body, blood also takes nutritive elements of the food to different organs. It also circulates the hormones secreted by different glands. Urea, cretatin, uric acids etc. are taken to the kidney by it and then expelled out of the body. The medicines taken by a patient are also carried by it. Doctors advise us to take food that contains folic acid, protein, vitamins etc. regulates to increase blood in our body. Some rich sources of these are Spinach, apple, green leafy vegetables, aamla, sprouted cereals, eggs, fish, etc. according to Dr. Sanjay Prakash, HOD transfusion medicine, seriology tests take about four hours to see whether the blood has infections like HIV, Hepatitis – A, B, Malaria etc. It takes about one hour for blood transfusion. So the blood donors, relatives, and friends are asked to reach the bank a couple of hours before.

According to Shyam Singhvi, Founder, Saral Blood bank in Udaipur the requirement of blood ranger is roughly from 20,000 to 25,000 units, out of which about 18,000 to 20,000 units are collected from volunteers. Other sources include relations, neighbors, and friends of the patients. About 90% of the requirement is met easily. And for the remaining amount, emergency calls are made to 150 to 200 donors. It can be said that nobody dies due to the paucity of blood in Lake City.

According to Dr. Chandra Mathur, former HOD, Pathology and Transfusion Medicine, RNT Medical College, Udaipur, it is heartening to see that Lake City people are becoming aware of the need of voluntary blood donation. Religious and spiritual organization such as Muslim Mahasabha, Jain World and Sikh Samaj Yuva and social organizations are also organizing camps where their members and others donate blood in large number. Recently, 400-500 unit blood was collected on Mahaveer Jayanti. People like Ravindrapal Singh Kappu, who has been honored at national and international level, chip in by creating awareness about blood donation by distributing 25000 color posters and booklet on blood donation. Dr. Mathur suggests that by making donation compulsory for getting driving license, Voter, identity card, Pan card, Aadhar card, etc. A larger number of people could be involved. Information about blood donation should also form a part of the school and college syllabuses.

Udaipurites are fully conscious of the problems related to blood donation in the city. It is evident from the fact that recently a group of blood donors presented a memorandum to the district collector to be forwarded to the CM. Uneducated villages are still being cheated by agents. In a large number of cases, the relatives of the patients are found to be ineligible as they are malnourished with low hemoglobin level. The demands of the group included the scrapping of blood donor card system and supply blood to all the needy persons.

When needed help of all the organizations should be taken privation of blood banks should be stopped. For the sake of transparency, the availability of blood in all the blood banks of the state should be made available online. No charges should be taken for blood transfusion products and tests. Storage capacity of govt. blood banks should be increased. Blood banks of private hospitals should take blood from other blood banks.

Imagine yourself standing outside a door that says OPERATION THEATRE with a red bulb glowing under that board. You are restlessly pacing in the corridor with drops of sweat on your forehead as your (God forbade) mother or father, brother or sister or your dearest friend lies on the operation table under the eyes of a team of doctors. A nurse emerges from the door and asks you to arrange for a unit of blood urgently as their blood bank is short of that particular blood group. That very moment you will realize the value of just 1 unit of blood.

I remember one advertisement in which a sweet little girl says ‘thank you’ to a group of youngsters sitting in a cafeteria. When asked for what she was thanking them, she replied that she is suffering from some disease in which she needs weekly blood transfusions. She doesn’t know whose blood renews her life every week, so she keeps on thanking every youngster she meets. This shook the heart of one boy who has never donated blood in his life and he decides to donate his blood for people who are in need of it.

If these two instances could not move your legs towards a blood bank, then make a note that God has forgot to put a heart in the left side of your chest.

Blood – it’s the basic fluid in your body that supplies oxygen and nutrients to every cell of your body and takes waste products of metabolism away from it. It neither can be replaced by any other fluid nor can be developed in vitro (outside the body). The need for donating blood and establishing more blood banks increases in the present era as statistics record an increase in the number of accidents as well as in the incidence of diseases such as Thalassemia for which regular blood transfusions is the only way of increasing life expectancy of the patient.

If you are thinking that donating a unit of blood will make you ill or you yourself will fall short of blood then let me tell you that even a lady normally loses some milliliters of blood every month during her menstrual period and there is not a single case where a lady died due to normal menstrual blood loss. Moreover, you all must have read at some time or other that a normal life span of RBCs (Red Blood Cell; cells that form a major part of your blood) has a life span of 120 days, that is, your blood keeps on getting renewed in every 120 days. So even if you donate few milliliters out of your 4.7 – 5.5 L of blood, your body will easily compensate the loss. If you don’t believe me, go ask any doctor around for more guidance.

Its Blood Donation day today; a perfect day to make a decision that we will be donating our blood at regular intervals. You never know whose valuable life your blood might be saving. So it’s in your hands whether to make your 350 ml of blood a mere waste or to make it priceless. Start donating and start saving lives…!!!