Despite the festive season in October, many organisations came forth to plan blood donation drives. Sankalp organised 17 drives in October leading to a collection of more than 1350 units of blood. On a complications front, 3.4% of donors faced one sort of complication or the other. However, follow up was done with most of them and there is no reason for concern.
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has identified two major initiatives towards better utilisation of blood and blood components, as part of its commitment to ensure safe blood and enhanced access to blood products, on the recommendation of the National Blood Transfusion Council. The first step is permitting the transfer of blood from one blood bank to another.
Recently, I was given the opportunity to do what I love the most to organise a Team Red training for students who were planning a blood donation camp in their campus at J.S.S.K.H. Kabbur Institute Of Engineering, Dharwad .
Offering HLA typing far and wide
We started on a journey traveling the length and breadth of the country in the month of October to reach out to families suffering from thalassemia who have never explored the option of cure. The prohibitive cost of HLA typing makes it out of reach for most families and thus the option of cure is also far from being explored.
The importance of the blood donor questionnaire form in blood donation cannot be over-emphasized. Besides, the demographic and identification related information, the donor form has questions which impact both the safety and well-being of the donor himself or that of the patient. It is also the instrument to capture informed consent.
Sundays have had a different meaning altogether for Project Samraksha, the Thalassemia Day Care Centre at Rashtroothhana Parishat. While the rest of the world enjoys their day off from work, the staff of the blood bank and the day care center put their best foot forward to work on their busiest day of the week.
(Dr Reshma Srinivas, stationed at Samraksha shares her experience)
A Family from Koppal visited Bangalore. They came to the Samraksha day care for thalassemia, located in the premises of Rashtrotthana Parishat with Rakesh, a two-year-old child. At registration, his father told me that Rakesh is their second child and was diagnosed with thalassemia.
It is well known that children suffering from thalassemia need blood transfusion and iron chelation every month. While the suffering and pain is borne by the child, the financial implications of this regular routine are quite demanding for many families.
Sankalp organized 12 blood donation camps in Sept 2015 collecting 772 units of blood. Syniverse: 3rd camp was organized in Syniverse on 2nd Sept. The company promoted the event very well and arranged fruits for the donors. We saw 87 people turning up for the event with a collection of 75 units of blood.
1st October is celebrated as National Voluntary Blood Donor’s Day in India to mark the birthday of Dr J G Jolly who is believed to have spearheaded the movement to promote Voluntary Blood Donation in the country. Several voluntary organizations across the country marked the day with blood donation drives and other celebrations including felicitation of regular donors.
What do we do as a voluntary organisation when we confront with a problem that affects the donors and the interest of voluntary blood donation as a whole? There are choices. There is the choice to create awareness about the problem and hope that someone will take notice and solve it.
Due to a patriotic fervour gripping the city around Independence day the number of blood donation drives in were far too many. At such times, Sankalp takes a stand not to organise too many drives. This ensures a balanced supply of blood without overloading and leading to possible wastage.
