“Give blood and keep the world beating”

Manish Gajbhiye

The theme of the World Blood Donor Day is “Give blood and keep the world beating". Accordingly, it is high time that the blood donors and the persons working in this field should be felicitated and saluted for their contribution to save millions of lives across the world.

In the challenging times, the blood donation has gained immense importance. It was also felt in the district as there was a severe scarcity of blood. The number of Covid patients was increasing day by day for the past one and a half year. The serious patients amongst them need blood but there was a scarcity of blood. Several blood banks, whether government or private, Non-Government Organisations and individuals appealed the generous blood donors to donate blood to overcome the blood requirement for the serious patients.

Pravin Gangwal, a bank employee has been donating blood since 1987 regularly. He has donated blood for 95 times until now. He said, one day while working in the bank. He came to know that the sister of the bank manager was serious and was in need of blood. Luckly, he had checked his blood group which was B , a few days back and the patient needed the same group. He immediately went to the hospital and gave blood to the patient suffering from severe Jaundice. It was the first occasion, when he donated the blood, but resolved to donate blood regularly. Since then, after every three months, he donates blood. He has never faced any health issues and his weight is maintained to 60 kgs since then. He is presently 59 years old and is willing to donate minimum for 108 times and if the health permits even more than that, Gangwal mentioned.

Mohammad Naveed, a social activist, is a well known name in the arena of blood donors. He runs a whatsapp group, in which, thousands of donors, not only from the state but from other states are attached. During emergency, the members of the groups donate blood by going to the hospital where the patients are in need of the blood. Naveed is 47 years old and has donated blood for 76 times. Whenever, there is a need of blood for the patients, the blood banks call him and he immediately go and donate blood. He is donating blood since 2009. Even if there is no emergency, he regularly donates blood after every three months. After seeing his commitment to save the lives of the people, many people have taken inspiration from him and have started donating blood. Naveed also guide the new donors with the formalities to be completed before donating blood.

Dr Manju Kulkarni, medical director of Dattaji Bhale Blood Bank, said, utmost care has to be taken while collecting the blood. At a time, 350 ml blood is collected from a person at a time. There are eight known blood groups (A , A-, B , B-, O , O-, AB , AB-), of which, AB- is the rarest group. We have donors of the rarest groups registered with us, during emergency, we call them and they donate blood. During collection of blood, the modernized equipment is used . We have the collection monitor, which keep the blood oscillating while collected in the bag, after the required volume of blood is collected in the bag, the bag is temporarily sealed by itself. There is very less human activities involved while collecting the blood. The blood bank organizes blood donation camps at various places and collects the blood samples.

Sunita Bankar, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Blood Bank, Counsellor.PRO, said, during the Corona pandemic there was a severe need of blood for the patients. However, the situation is much under control. We are getting blood regularly from the donors and the donation camps are organised regularly. We had started the new Plasma secretion system here. As per the previous government guidelines, the plasma treatment was given to the Corona patients, but it has stopped now. At the GMCH Blood Bank, after collection of blood, plasma, red blood cells, (RBC) and platelets are separated and donated to the patients as per the need. Platelets are used in the bleeding disorders, dengue and other diseases. The blood collected has to be utilized within 35 days, the plasma can be preserved for 1 years, while platelets for just five days. The government had directed that a persons can donate blood after 28 days of his second Corona vaccination, but as per the new guidelines this period has reduced to 14 days, Bankar said.