Opening a vein - The Hindu
In a country of a billion, only a few hundred people have the Bombay blood group. Here is how they band together in times of need
In a country of a billion, only a few hundred people have the Bombay blood group. Here is how they band together in times of need
We at Sankalp India Foundation get numerous blood requests. We are uniquely positioned in a sense that we tend to get the more difficult to manage blood requests - rare blood groups, difficult situations, timings, lesser known components etc.
Emergency wing was the first team of SIF which started with the pledge to do whatever it takes to ensure no one suffers due to shortage of blood. Today the team takes up blood requests which are difficult to be handled by the existing blood stocks in blood banks or by simply getting a few donation done.
It was early January 2014 when Bangalore was undergoing severe shortage of blood. Even the most common groups like A+ and B+ were out of stock. The reason being the holiday season, when most of the colleges were off and companies were having fewer drives.
Sankalp started 10 years back with the intent to help people who are facing difficulty arranging for blood in emergencies. That responsibility now rests with the emergency team of the organisation. In those days the challenge was to organise for blood for the patients who were sent out of the blood banks to look for donors. Replacement requests, negative group requests and seasonal shortages kept us busy. Those were the days when an AB-ve request was considered a challenge. Then came the era of single donor platelets.
Sankalp helpline gets a minimum of 3 to 4 Bombay blood group requests every month from all parts of the country. With such flowing requests and very few eligible donors available it has become very much a necessity to request donors to donate every three months and motivate more Bombay blood group donors who are not aware about the scarcity and need of this unit.
Bangalore was happy to host the second annual conference of Indian Society for Transfusion Medicine from September 13-15 2013. The conference brought together the experts in the field of transfusion medicine from across the nation. It was a great opportunity to learn and share.
Bombaybloodgroup.org has been bustling with activity in the last few months. It is the platform for the vibrant Bombay blood group community of our nation.
Usually whenever Sankalp receives blood requests on the helpline, the request gets fulfilled within a week unless operation is scheduled for a later date. But in this one request, the heart surgery of a 9 year old girl was postponed 3 times in 6 months due to various reasons.
Blood Donation Drive at Lingarajappa College Of Engineering, Bidar.
23rd February 2013: Sankalp India Foundation, organised for 3 units of Bombay phenotype for a critical patient receiving treatment at Istanbul University, Turkey.
On 20th February 2013, Sankalp India Foundation received a blood request from the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Istanbul University, Turkey.
Replacement for blood is just refusing to go away.. and now it has started affecting voluntary blood donation as well!
A person got his father admitted in a reputed hospital for a cardiac surgery. He was told that 5 blood donors were required to be brought in before the surgery.