Life-saving blood...

While driving past an NGO hospital last week a friend read out a sign painted on the hospital wall stating that patients need to come with their own blood donors. He thought that was very odd but having been here for years it didn’t seem strange to me. I suppose in the developed world, one would not see such a sign.

Every day children come to the hospital with severe anemia, mostly due to malaria. So, not only do they need to receive anti-malarial medication, they often need blood transfusions as well. Unfortunately it can take up to hours if not days for some of the children to receive blood.
The reason for this is that the blood bank runs on a donor replacement system.

Basically, a family member needs to donate a unit of blood to the blood bank in exchange for a unit of screened blood that is stored in the fridge, which will go directly to the patient. Meanwhile the blood donated by the family member will be screened and if uninfected, it is stored in the fridge and used for a patient needing blood at a later time. It sounds simple but unfortunately in practice, the system does not always work. The main problem is that there is often no family member willing to donate; either no one but the mother is around or relatives do not want to donate. And for some reason the blood bank often refuses to take blood from the mothers.

I do not know why, but in general Sierra Leoneans do not like to donate blood. They either assume that by donating they will get infected with something, or are worried about the HIV screen or various other things. This is a problem because it means a child will not receive blood from the bank because the unit taken out is not going to be replaced. And, in all fairness to the blood bank, if this happens too often the blood bank will be depleted.

I have seen in the Emergency Room and ICU countless children in urgent need of blood. Children literally come in with a hemoglobin as low as 1 or 2 g/dL. Some of these children will die if they don’t receive blood within the first hour. It is for these cases that I will take the child’s blood sample and blood request form to the blood bank and ask for a unit from the screened stock, explaining how critically ill the child is. I do end up getting the blood but not without hesitation. And in all fairness, I totally understand the concern because the more we make exceptions, the more relatives will refrain from donating, assuming we will arrange for them to get blood without having to replace it. This is obviously not sustainable.

In December I was asking for blood so often that I decided it was time to replace some of the blood myself. It was time to donate. So, together with Shona (VSO doctor) we headed to the blood bank on a Friday afternoon after lunch thinking we would be in and out in no time. I should have known better. Although it took a while, I have to say we had an interesting experience.

We wanted the technician to go through the usual procedure to make sure we were fit to donate so he proceeded to check our hemoglobin with the Hemocue. Unfortunately it was not working. He pulled out a color card, which literally was a piece of paper with various shades of red painted on it. I questioned this method and suggested he use the centrifuge for a spun hematocrit. We were rather unfortunate once again as the blood spilled out of the capillary tubes while spinning in the centrifuge. What are the odds? Since I had recently had my blood checked at home, I knew my hemoglobin was okay and we decided to go ahead with the donation.

After the blood grouping, we reclined on the two makeshift beds and got as comfortable as we could knowing a large bore needle was about to be put into our veins. We were more at ease when the technician started playing Christmas tunes from his cell phone. He inserted the needle with ease and it was amazing to see my blood flowing into a blood bag, knowing that it could potentially save a child’s life. It felt incredible to be able to help in such a tangible way and be a part of a child’s healing process. It also made me feel good to know I was giving a unit to the blood bank rather than just taking.

I later learned that my blood had been given to two different children and although I don’t know who they are or what the outcomes were, I know that I helped those children. I will definitely donate as often as I can at Children’s and I definitely recommend that people come to the hospital to donate blood. It is a very worthy cause. Seriously, if you come and donate let me know and I’ll buy you a coke while you recover. And, if you’re not in Sierra Leone, donate at your local blood bank. A unit of blood can impact someone’s life. It can mean the difference between life and death.

First posted @ http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2011/02/11/sandra-lako-life-saving-blood/