BLOOD DONOR, THE LIFE SAVER
1. INTRODUCTION
‘Blood donation’ implies an altruistic act of donating one’s own blood voluntarily to the other in order to save the life of that person.
Blood donation is the most sacred act. By donating one’s blood the life of another person can be saved. That is why, blood donation and life saving are considered synonymous.
Human blood cannot be produced through artificial means, as such there is no substitute for it. Blood is a very precious body substance. Blood can be collected from the donor’s body. A healthy human body has approximately 5 to 6 litres of blood. Blood weighs 7 per cent of the body weight. It has white corpuscles, red corpuscles, platelets and plasma functioning complementarily. At the time of donating blood 350 ml blood will be extracted.
Since blood cannot be produced through artificial means, in emergency situations and dire need the blood of donors are the only source of life support. At the time of accidents and emergency situations and surgey, such as blood cancer, child birth there is a need for blood. Besides, thalassimia and hemophilia patients need blood transfusion throughout their lives.
Annually there is a need for 4 – 4.5 crore units of blood in our country. The most distressing fact is that only 40 – 50 lakh units of blood being collected annually from voluntary blood donors. That means only 70 – 80 per cent of the blood requirement is supplied. There is a daily requirement of 900 to 1200 units of blood in our state of Karnataka.
At any moment, in any part of the country, someone or the other is in need of blood. Hence there is a constant demand for at least 38,000 units of blood. The blood donated by the donors is classified into whole blood, red blod corpuscles, platelet, plasma and cryoprecipitate. With this classification it becomes possible to help the patient according to the individual need.
Blood donation, being a sacred act, every one of us must donate blood at least once in life time. In view of the significance of blood donation, if every healthy person donates blood recurringly, the lives of the diseased, wounded and injured can be saved.
In several emergency situations, blood is very essential to save the human life. There is no substitute for blood. In spite of scientific research, we have not been able to produce blood artificially. Inevitably we depend on the donors. We need to develop the culture of donating blood voluntarily. The true meaning of blood donation lies in donating blood voluntarily for no gains. (To be Continuted.....)
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