Blood donation is a must, not an option

Blood transfusion has been the sad tale of Parth Thakur's life ever since he was a three month old cherub. A thalassemia major, Parth, who is now a strapping young man of 20 needs two units of blood every 15 days to continue surviving. While Thakur has a group of 30 regular donors, family members of most patients, during a medical emergency, are asked by the blood banks or their doctors to find more donors. 

This shifts the responsibility of finding blood donors from the shoulders of the blood bank to that of the patient's family. Vinay Shetty, Vice President of Think Foundation, an NGO that supports voluntary blood donation finds it completely unacceptable. “Why should the patients be saddled with the responsibility of finding donors? Blood banks should ensure that they organise several camps to keep up the supply,” he said. 

It is people like Mahesh Shirodkar, and many others like him who bring a little humanity to the world with little acts of kindness such as blood donation. “Cancer patients and those down with dengue require blood platelets on a regular basis. Platelets cannot be stored for over a period of five days hence the supply is always short,” said the 45-year old who has been donating blood since 1989.

Having donated over 250 times, he speaks with a little experience explaining that platelet donation takes around 90 minutes, which is the reason why most stick to whole blood donation, which takes a relatively shorter amount of time.

“More people need to walk in and donate blood on their own. Also over time with medical complications such as hypertension, etc., many of our donors are unable to keep donating, leading to a drop in their numbers,” said Khusroo Porecha, founder of Indian Blood Donors. The group also has a website and mobile app that connects blood donors with receipients. 

“Blood donation must not be crisis driven. Instead blood donation campaigns must be organised regularly to make it convenient for more patients to donate blood,” said Shetty.