Rakta Kranti
After the seasonal break around the Christmas - New Year period we had 9 camps in Jan collecting 751 units of blood in the month of January. Let us have a look at the drives from January.
Xerox
Xerox organized the first camp with Sankalp on 9th Jan. 65 units were collected in the camp. Excellent publicity from company and their cooperation in keeping the drive open for other companies, enabled a great turnout. In fact, due to high turnout post lunch, we had to close registrations early.
Bangalore Ascenders
Bangalore Ascenders is a trekking group that supports the cause of voluntary donation by organizing regular camps with Government hospitals. This time a group of volunteers came to Victoria hospital. 13 units were collected in the event.
Star Bazaar
A public camp was organized at Star Market, Marathalli on 17th. There was a lot of publicity done for the camp. Brochures were distributed, announcements made and a motivational session was conducted for the employees. We had 38 people volunteering to donate blood and 20 units were collected after the screening process.
WNS
WNS has been supporting us by regular blood camps. This time camp was organized on 21st and as always there was a huge rush of motivated donors. 102 units of precious blood was collected in this event.
Above Solutions
Second camp was organized in Above Solution on 22nd Jan. It was a good camp with most of the employees coming forward for the cause. 19 units were collected in the event. There was an adverse reaction for a donor who at that time was in the cafeteria on the 2nd floors with no access to lift. When it was required to move the donor down, we found that blood bank was not equipped with the emergency equipment. This puts a strong case of carrying spinal board and oxygen kit in the camps.
Capgemini
A series of camps was organized in Capgemini on 29th and 30th Jan. Camps came as a huge relief to the city as most of the blood banks were dried up and had a great shortage.
The most interesting thing about doing drives at Capgemini is the number of regular blood donors who come to donate blood. Several donors who got deferred because of medical reasons were disappointed because for years they had been maintaining the tradition of donation blood each time the camp is organised at Capgemini making it 2-3 times a year. Fabulous participation and support from the company made sure that the blood bank staff were on their toes collecting units from the donors right through the duration of the camp.
293 units were collected in 2 days at Prestige Shanti Niketan , 122 units at Brigade Metropolis, And 117 at Ecospace.
Thalassemia Prevention, Management and Cure
At Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health we had 236 visits in January with 399 transfusions. Almost all units of blood were made available from within the hospital. Average pre-transfusion hemoglobin was 8.96 which makes this month really remarkable. For the first time since the starting of the daycare we are only a whisker away from our target of maintaining average of 9gm/dl as the pre-transfusion haemoglobin. Hepatitis-B immunisation is being done at a war footage. HLA typing is also being offered to several children.
At Samraksha we had 202 visits in January with 241 transfusions. Average pre-transfusion hemoglobin was 8.76 gm/dl but this is also because a large number of children at the centre are undertaking hydroxyurea therapy (for which lower threshold for transfusion is used). Almost all children who were considered suitable candidates for transplants and who had a sibling have been offered HLA typing.
Workshop on Thalassemia Management and Transplantation is being organised on February 20th, 2015, Bangalore at Rashtrotthana Parishat. Dr Lawrence Faulkner, the medical director of Cure2Children, Italy and a renowned pediatric hematologist and oncologist will be participating in the workshop along with the doctors taking care of children suffering from thalassemia in centres supported by Sankalp India Foundation.
Bone Marrow Transplant Started
The first bone marrow transplant supported by Sankalp India Foundation happened in the month of January. While the organisation was working on enabling cure for chronically ill patients for last few years - this one step is a decisive move in the direction of cure for chronically ill children. We are keeping our fingers crossed even as we see the children make good progress with their transplants.
Prevention of Thalassemia Initiated
We have taken the next step so far as prevention of thalassemia is concerned. So far we were only enabling antenatal screening for couples having high chance of giving birth to a thalassemia major child. The identification of these couples was done within the family of the children who come to the day care centres we run.
We were doing thalassemia screening on an on and off basis so far. Bangalore is far behind several other cities in the country when it comes to mass thalassemia screening. The little step we have taken in the month of January is to introduce the option of highly subsidised screening test for anyone who wants to get themselves screened. People can call our helpline number: 9480044444 and book appointments for the screening test. We will gradually expand this activity into screening larger number of people and eventually aim at having a good mass screening program for blood disorders in Karnataka. See page for details on this.
Disha
Fewer than usual number of calls were received in the month of January hovering at around 15 calls a day. 70% of the blood requests received on the helpline were received from Bangalore. The districts which contributed to most requests were Dharwad, Mysore, Davanagere, Dakshina Kannada, Gulbarga, Bijapur, Raichur and Shimoga in the same order beside 8 more districts. A need is felt to reach the hospitals once again with the message of the helpline. This process will be undertaken in February-March this year in preparation of the upcoming summers.