Blood Donors Encourage Others To Join
Almost 150 blood donors came together for group photograph to encourage others to join them in giving the gift of life for World Blood Donor Day, which is celebrated today [June 14]. Only about 3% of people in Bermuda donate blood. This is about half that found in other developed countries, where about 6% of the country donate blood.
“Our existing donors are wonderful and we rely on them donating regularly due to the small percentage of the population currently donating,” explains Dr Betsie Lombard, Director of Blood Transfusion Services.
“More people should join us,” she adds. “The donation process only takes about half an hour and there is dedicated parking just for blood donors as we recognize that many of them take time out of their busy work lives.”
Only a small percentage of donated blood goes to trauma victims, such as road traffic accident or victims of violence. Most blood donated helps people who undergo surgery, or who need blood for therapeutic reasons, such as cancer patients on chemotherapy or people with sickle cell anaemia.
“People don’t always realize that blood donors not only save lives, but improve the quality of life for many people with painful and debilitating conditions,” Dr Lombard says. “And many of our blood donors overcome needle phobias to donate. We use trained blood donor nurses and technicians to ensure maximum comfort and safety.”
About 40 to 50 units of blood are needed in Bermuda every week to manage therapeutic uses, planned surgery and trauma. Without blood donations, no elective or emergency surgery could take
If they would lift the ban on people donating blood who resided in the UK during the “Mad Cow” (vCJD)epidemic of the 1980′s and 1990′s, I am sure that they would have a lot more donors!
I found a quote from an expert:
“There is not a lot of evidence that you can get this disease from blood transfusions,” says bioethicist Art Caplan, who heads the nation’s top blood advisory panel. “But there is a lot of evidence that as you start taking people out of the pool of donors, you may wind up with a shortage of blood that can do harm.”
The funny thing is that people who live in the UK can donate blood with no problem.
Food for thought…