Spontaneous donation VS systematic approach: why it is important to become a regular blood donor
[ad_1]
A young, muscular and tall guy donates blood for the first time. He recently turned 18, so he can finally help save lives by donating. He squeezes the rubber ball intensively until the nurse asks him not to be so nervous. The hemacon (container for collecting blood) is filled with healing blood, and suddenly the boy becomes paler than the bed sheet, and in a minute he passes out.
So in the hospital, where he so emotionally and passionately wanted to donate blood for his friend who got into a road accident, another patient is added. Now both the victim of the accident on the road and the one who came to save him need a blood transfusion.
So the emotional and sudden urge to donate blood only increased the number of those who need it. This is called spontaneous donation. When loved ones need blood, the level of forgetfulness about the state of health rises to the sky. Or people deliberately hide something about themselves, think that it is a trifle compared to the fact that for the recipient this blood is a matter of life and death.
It happened this time as well. His friends from the dormitory came to help the recipient, one of them – tall, young, muscular – forgot that he had a stomach ulcer. When donating blood, a relapse occurred, internal bleeding began. The need for donor blood has increased again.
In Ukraine, one-time (or spontaneous) donation is still a common phenomenon. In case of urgent need, blood donors for the patient become his friends or family members, or they look for a donor among acquaintances or through social networks. In this case, the patient’s family does the search on their own.
Read also: Is it possible to be a donor after a tattoo and who is prohibited from donating blood? The Ministry of Health explains
Voluntary free systemic donation is a feature of developed countries. This is an indicator that the health care system takes care of people properly, and the citizens themselves make a conscious contribution to the development and protection of society. According to the WHO, 79 countries collect more than 90% of donated blood through voluntary free donation. Among them are 38 high-income countries, 33 middle-income countries, and eight low-income countries.
According to the Pan American Health Organization, blood obtained from regular volunteer donors is safer than blood from paid donors or the patient’s family/friends. Studies show that family donors are less aware of the contraindications that prevent them from sharing blood. People who receive rewards for donating blood tend to gloss over factors that could harm the recipient.
An inspiring example is the United States, where approximately 3% of the population annually become blood donors. At least once every two years, the US Food and Drug Administration reviews the quality of work of all institutions related to this field. The country has long since abandoned family or paid donation.
Spontaneous donation is also dangerous from a “reputational” point of view. The story about the boy with an ulcer is real, he was helped in time and saved. However, this is far from the only case when people, having not prepared for donation or neglecting contraindications, believe that the problem lies in the procedure itself and that donating blood is dangerous. Because of this, there are still many myths about donation in society, although blood sampling is one of the safest and “tested” medical manipulations.
Read also: How and who can become a blood donor? Instruction from the Ministry of Health
We at DonorUA have been developing systematic voluntary blood donation since 2015. Today, our community has more than 135,000 donors. This is only one of the first results and steps on the way to voluntary voluntary blood donation in Ukraine. After all, the country still lacks blood. After the full-scale invasion, the need for it increased by 60%, but even before that, about 75% of patients needing a transfusion did not receive it on time or at all.
At the same time, the need for blood grows every year in any country, as medicine develops, more and more complex operations are performed that were not performed before. Unfortunately, the number of people who have cancer is also increasing. Although the wounded need blood during the war, the deeper task before us is to make donation systematic, when donating blood becomes a habit for a person. For this purpose, we organize out-of-town donations, corporate donor days in companies, thematic events.
In addition, systemic donation means taking care of one’s own health: before each donation, a general blood test is taken from the donor, and blood is also tested for HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B and C, which is, in fact, a free screening. In addition, regular donations are a prevention of thrombosis and cancer. To focus attention on the benefits of donation, its beauty and importance for the development of society, we launched the campaign #Bloom. Within the framework of this campaign, we hold holiday promotions, popular science lectures, thematic parties and other activities that completely change the perception of blood donation as such.
More detailed material on the advantages of systemic donation over spontaneous donation is available on the DonorUA website.
Iryna Slavinska, co-founder of DonorUA and president of the NGO “All-Ukrainian Association of Donors of Ukraine”, specially for UP. Life
Publications in the “View” section are not editorial articles and reflect exclusively the author’s point of view.
Read also: What to eat when you plan to become a blood donor
[ad_2]
Original Source Link
