
Blood donation simply means giving own blood for free of cost with own will without any expectations for benefit with it. It is a voluntary task carried out for the man kind where an individual allows withdrawing blood.
Blood donations are carried out for supplement of blood and various blood contents in any emergency situation. A small amount of blood that we donate may be very precious gift for those on need. Any accidents or disaster situation may lead to need of blood for many people at once. Many people faces operations daily for which they need to manage blood, sometimes for backup only. Similarly a pregnant woman who is going to give birth to her offspring also need to have blood managed for any emergency situation that may develop and may be threatening to the life of the new born baby and the mother as well.
Blood is one of the major content of our body fluid. Its amount is regulated by the natural physiological process of our body, on a regular period of time blood cells are replaced by the new one. It is not the truth that if we donate blood there will be lacking it for our own body. The blood is replaced by production of the new blood cells within few days. Nature possess a rule of wear and torn, the same is applied here in our body as well. Thus, we can donate our blood on regular basis on every 3 months.
Blood donation is a social activity carried out by people living in a society with a motive to help those needy people. Nepal Red Cross society is one of the authorized body for blood collecting and supplying to those needy. In between the collection and supplement blood goes through numbers of procedures to examine it for presence of any blood borne diseases, so that the one who uses the blood would not suffer from any illness after receiving the blood. After going through the examinations the blood is stored in appropriate temperature so that the blood content would not get destroyed.
Nepal Red Cross society was established in 1966AD. Initially the organization was providing services to people in Kathmandu only but later on with increasing demand it has established its branches in 48 districts for easy access of people for blood. Now a days, many hospitals also started to have their own blood bank, where they collect and do all essential tests as in Red Cross society’s blood bank. The center office of Nepal Red Cross society in Kathmandu, it possess in 4 regional offices, 21 district centers for blood transfusion and collection and 25 units in different hospitals and medical colleges.
People are being aware about the need for blood donation more than in the past. Many organizations use to organize blood donation programs in association with Nepal Red Cross Society in many occasions. This shows that blood donation programs are also the way of celebration in a humanitarian way rather than having lunch and bunch in the crowd. In order to motivate people towards blood donation Red Cross Society is involving the school children as well through active participation of school children with establishment of Junior Red Cross Societies in schools.
There are many confusion associated with blood donations. One of the main is that people think that they are being charged for what they provided free of cost previously. It is necessary to know that the charge is taken for the procedures it went through for its collection, examination and storage. The second one is drawing of blood for earning of money because of unemployment. People allow drawing of blood more frequently even before being replaced by the new blood cells. This type of act may be threatening to own health. Thus is necessary to keep record of the number of blood donation and the last date of donation as well.
Before drawing of the blood the donor should be well examined such as for blood type that is the grouping of blood, age of the donor, past and present illness and blood pressure. And soon after the drawing of blood the donor should be provided with some refreshments like juice, fruits and some time to rest as well because the donor may face sudden shock which may be life threatening. Similarly in many organizations people are given leave for being participated in blood donation program.
There are 4 different types of blood groups, A, B, O and AB. Within these types some possess rhesus positive and some possess rhesus negative. Among these types AB is universal receiver as they can receive either A, B, AB or O in emergency situation. O type is universal donor because they do not possess any antigen and they can only receive O type in emergency because of presence of antigens in other blood types. This shows that it is very important for us to know about own blood type and we may become a useful person for those in need. An identity card with blood type is in use now days in many organizations. And many organizations use to conduct blood test for identification of blood type. Even people with rare blood types needs to be in contact with the center organization like Nepal Red Cross Society so that it would be more easy to contact in need for self or for others.
Blood donation is a humanitarian act, donating blood does not affects our body. We need to be aware about the need of blood donation so that we will be able to encourage others for blood donation. 250 ml of blood that will torn off by self will be much useful if collected and kept safe. It is a power that nature has provided to us to save others and so we are call “HUMAN BEING” and so we say “GIVE BLOOD SAVE LIFE”.
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