World Blood Donor Day today

LAHORE: The World Blood Donor Day serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood. This is an act of great kindness and in the honour of such kind-hearted blood donors the world celebrates Blood Donor Day on June 14 every year.

From head to toe every part of human body has its own unique importance. God has made the human body system so flawless that we remain unable to notice the functions of body parts until there is some malfunction in it. Blood is one of the most important of all the body components. Need of blood is above your buying power, as it depends only on availability of required blood group at the time of need. A relative, friend, or a kind stranger can step forward to save the life of the patient by donating their blood. There are lots of misconceptions about blood donation in our society. According to doctors, every healthy man and woman over 17 years of age can donate blood. Those who have had jaundice in their life time are advised not to donate blood. Every adult human body contains 10 to 12 pints of blood, whereas; every donor can donate only 500ml blood at one time with an interval of at least four months. Blood transfusion is safe process with no pain other than of a needle pinch. Although blood donor has no risk of infections, but it is recommended that the process of blood transfusion or donation is held by trained staff under the supervision of experienced doctors. This is what is done at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Center (SKMCH&RC) day after day as need for blood transfusion occurs in case of surgery, injury or diseases. Patients of cancer, anemia, thalassaemia and stomach ulcer also need blood during their treatment.

At SKMCH&RC, there is a requirement of 50 to 60 pints of blood on a daily basis routine. To fulfill this requirement, the hospital has created a blood collection mechanism through camps at different colleges, universities and corporate organisations. These blood collection camps are organised on a weekly basis, under supervision of qualified doctors with the help of trained staff. The hospital makes sure of the presence of a pathologist and a doctor at every camp. SKMCH&RC blood collection camps are unique in the sense that they are providing free blood tests facility.