Reasons Why You Should Donate Blood
1) It's FREE and keeps you HEALTHY
2) It's 100% SAFE
3) Save LIVES:
One pint of blood from one donor can save up to three lives!
Every three seconds, someone needs a blood transfusion and
about 1 in 7 people entering a hospital needs blood.!
4) Save the future by saving a Child: 20 percent of recipients are children – many are cancer patients!
5) you are allowed to give blood every 56 days
6) About 60 percent of the population are eligible to donate blood, yet less than 4 percent do!
7) At least 500 pints of blood must be collected every day to meet the needs of area patients.
8) Reduce the RISK of Cancer
-According to the Miller-Keystone Blood Center, donating blood regularly is associated with lowered risks for cancer including lung, colon, liver, throat and stomach cancers. So if you want to help lower your risk of cancer, donate blood regularly. Risk levels dropped in correlation with how often donors give blood.
9) Reduce the RISK of getting a HEART ATTACK
The Florida Blood Services reports that people who donate blood regularly over the years have an 88% lower risk of heart attack and a 33% lower risk of any severe cardiovascular event, such as stroke.
Few Clarifications on Blood Donation Programmes:
Misconception 1. Blood can be preserved for several months.
Blood Bank Officer,Balasore: It's not true. After Collection it need to be used within a month.
Q.1. Blood Banks Collect lots of blood through Blood Donation Camps but still during theirs need people don't get blood in the Blood Banks. So what happens to all those blood units collected during the camps?
Dr. Biswal: There are about 300 thalassemia* patients in Balasore district itself. At the rate of one or two units per patient, a total of 500 units are given to these patients every month.
In addition to this another 500 units are used for the delivery patients as well as accident patients. Therefore, in Balasore dist only the monthly consumption rate is around 1000 units!
- Blood Camps provides only a PART OF THIS requirement.
- Blood Banks run short of Blood during Apr-July every year as during this period Schools/ Colleges remain closed and no camp is conducted.
Misconception 2. Blood Banks collect Blood without checking and afterwards waste most of it.
Dr. Biswal: Very few packets are wasted out for detection of +ve cases of HIV/ Malaria etc otherwise most of the collected units are used. Because the test are time consuming, cannot be performed during a camp.
Q.2. Blood Banks Collect blood free of cost through Blood Donation Camps but they charge money from the patients to provide it them, why?
Dr. Biswal: The amount charged per packet is nominal and is spent on various checks those are performed on the collected bloods.
Misconception 3. Blood with traces of alcohol in it is destroyed.
Dr. Biswal: Not true. A little amount of alcohol that is sometimes found in some collected packets of blood does not make that packet unusable. Many medicines (cough syrups etc) have alcohol content and alcohol is used as a preservative.
*thalassemia is a kind of a blood disorder passed down through families (inherited) in which the body makes an abnormal form of hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. The disorder results in excessive destruction of red blood cells, which leads to anemia.) who need regular blood transfusion for their survival (at a rate of one/two units per patient per month.