Due to steps taken by the administration of Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital (GMKMCH), the number of people donating blood has increased, which was hit during the COVID-19 pandemic time.
Every government hospital needs blood every day to save accident victims, for surgery, and for women after delivery. So, government hospitals have to maintain the availability of blood. Hundreds of volunteers donate blood to government hospitals, and many donate to celebrate their party leaders’ or cinema heroes’ birthdays.
Until 15 years ago, we could hear the word that a woman died after delivering a child due to blood loss. But now, this has come down because of the availability of blood in hospitals.
But during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people donating blood came down as all the government hospitals in the State treated more COVID-19 patients.
Blood Bank Medical Officer of GMKMCH M. Raveendran said in 2019, we received 18,877 units of blood. But during the pandemic, it started to reduce drastically and we conducted camps at Kumarasamipatti Urban Primary Health Centre to receive blood from donors following their fear of coming to hospital.
Through 153 camps conducted outside the hospitals, we were able to receive 14,198 and 14,152 units of blood in 2020 and 2021, respectively. People have started to donate blood to GMKMCH since March this year.
Mr. Raveendran added that till June 15, 2022, we received 7,774 units of blood, and we are expecting that this year we will be able to get more than 15,000 units of blood.
People should come forward to donate blood to save lives. Donated blood will be automatically produced by the body. People between 18-65 years of age and people with more than 12.5 haemoglobin levels can donate blood. “We are able to preserve donated blood for 35 days in the hospital,” Dr. Raveendran added.
“We have 300 regular donors to the hospital and we have details of eight people in the district who have a rare Bombay blood group.”
“People should not believe some myths spread about blood donation. Fresh blood will be produced for the blood donors through the food they eat, and they will be able to do all the work as usual,“ Dean of GMKMCH Valli Sathyamoorthy added.
