Fete venue doubles up as blood donation camp

Amid the bustle at Government Higher Secondary School for Girls, Cotton Hill, on the second day of the District School Arts Festival, the arrival of an ambulance from the Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) drew only a few cursory glances. The vehicle had reached the school as part of a blood donation camp organised by the institute with the support of the school National Service Scheme unit. The institute needed O+ blood urgently, and the NSS unit led by a teacher Sreeja spared no efforts in making available a reception committee room for the camp.

The blood bank at the Sree Chitra institute offers 100 per cent patient support, so that they do not have to replace the blood needed or run around trying to find donors. “Patients do not have to bother about arranging blood. That burden is entirely shouldered by the blood bank,” says Sulochana P.V., Scientist G at the SCTIMST.

While this goes a long way in reducing the stress on already-hassled patients and their loved ones, whenever a shortage arises, the blood bank has to find ways of arranging blood. One way of ensuring this is voluntary blood donation, for which the hospital conducts about 15 camps a month.

But why the visit to the festival venue? There was a major surgery at the hospital, and the patient had lost lot of blood. A camp was scheduled for the next day, but any requirement of blood prior to it would pose a huge problem. An emergency drive was one way of getting the blood required.

When the blood bank arranges for blood, safe blood that is voluntarily donated and does not involve making payments in cash or kind is available. “There should be no third party between the patient and the blood bank,” Ms. Sulochana says. In fact, it is the responsibility of society, not of the patient to arrange for blood, she adds.

The expenses incurred by the patients in arranging donors can also be avoided, she points out. The response to the camp was encouraging. As many as 22 units of blood were screened, and 15 were collected in the little time the drive was on. “People are willing to donate, and if we go to them they are ready to help. It is one’s responsibility too, and one should always be ready to donate blood, and not just during tragedies such as Puttingal,” she says.