Parents of thalassemic children have several queries regarding the treatment regimen and overall health of their children. Factors that affect growth of the child comes out as a major concern in interaction with parents.
National Voluntary Blood Donation Day is celebrated in India on 1st of October every year to share the need and importance of the blood in the life of an individual. It was first started celebrating on 1st of October in the year 1975 through the Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immunohaematology.
A friend in need is a friend indeed. Information made available when required the most is often invaluable. Helplines are meant and designed to serve this purpose. Our social structure often provides helplines for a lot of prevalent problems. 10 years ago it was a surprise for our little team that there is no helpline to help in search of blood.
August was a month of plenty in Bangalore - at least as far as blood is concerned. Unfortunately, still several blood donation camps are not carefully planned keeping in mind the demand of blood. When the colleges reopen after the summer vacation, there are several institutions who express desire to conduct camps.
Last month we cross the 1000 mark for the number of blood units being transfused to patients suffering from thalassemia across the state of Karnataka.
Sankalp India Foundation, Bangalore, Think Foundation, Mumbai and We Care Trust, Mumbai collaborated with Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital,Mumbai and had started a Bone Marrow Transplantation Project at Mumbai for Thalassemia patients coming from financially poor background.
After the end of a long busy day as I sat to look at some videos, I got a call from Dr Reshma. She informed me that a child who is taking treatment at our centre needed an urgent appendicectomy – removal of his appendix which had become infected and inflamed. It was a Saturday night.
When I walked up the stairs of Samraksha today I realised that a little girl was peeping down from the stairs. The look in her eyes told me that she was waiting for me. I shared the usual pleasantries with the family and walked across a hall full of children and parents straight to the doctor's room.
Project Samraksha, the Thalassemia Day Care Centre at Rashtrotthana Parishat celebrated the World Thalassemia Day on the 8th May 2016. The event was eagerly awaited and carefully planned by the children themselves.
