Saturday, May 12, 2007

Blood Donation

Yesterday there was a blood donation camp at my office. I donated blood after a long time, (Aug 2005).It is always a satisfying experience after donating blood, that some life will be saved because of the blood that you donated

Thinking back, when and where I heard about blood donation, It was my father who was travelling to another town to donate blood for a friend, told me something about it,but never knew completely what it was all about since I was very young then. I heard seriously about Blood Donation, ironically from a Comedy Drama of Sve Shekar, where in which he is organizing for a blood donation camp, but unable to convince his wife and father-in-law to donate blood, in the end father-in-law gets injured and saved by blood donated by some one else. In the drama, he said some one (if I remember correctly it is Bangalore ramani amma) has donated about 52 times in her life time. If every one donated blood at least once in their life time, there will be no shortage of blood in any hospital. A strong and valid point.

Later in my college life, Chemistry Professor Rajaram, involved us in various social activities like NSS camp in some villages where in which blood donation was one of the critical part, which made me to take a decision to donate blood at least once in my life time. A opportunity came at my final year of college, a blood donation camp was organized in the college.It was a very healthy competition in the college to give blood donation more than 200 students gave blood and I was one of them. I always had a fear that since I am lean, I might be rejected for donating blood. But nothing like that happened.

My subsequent blood donations happened during my six years in Bangalore all them organized through the community clubs of the various companies I worked. I always try to persuade people, to donate blood, but to my surprise, most people including very educated people have misconceptions about blood donation. I was also shocked when one of my ex-colleague (who is a MBA graduate) told that one should not give blood, you will become weak , get disease because of blood donation. I have never seen any other blood donation camp which was similar to the college blood donation camp, cheering and queueing up for blood donation.

Check out this post from Jump on Blood Banks.


A few points from my personal experience

People from the age of 18 to 50 (sometimes 55) weighing more than 46 Kg can donate blood.

A doctor, check and enquires, before permitting you to donate blood.

By Donating blood, you are not going to loose any thing. You might face some dizziness, but you could just avoid it by drinking extra water (You don't even need refreshments, I have tested this twice in blood donation camps by not taking any refreshments!!)

Just continue doing your daily routine, nothing will happen. (Unless your work involves lot of physical activity)

Preferably donate blood one hour after food and take the next food after two of blood donation.But don't skip any meals. Drink lot of water.

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