Blood-letting that saves lives

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that severe bleeding during pregnancy, delivery or after childbirth is the single biggest cause of maternal death. In fact, 27 percent of the 289,000 women who died while giving birth in 2013 succumbed to severe bleeding.

Maternal death from severe bleeding can be significantly lowered through blood transfusion if only all countries would have a steady supply of quality donated blood, said WHO. A minimum of 10 people regularly donating blood from every 1,000 population would ensure ample blood supply for transfusion, it added.

However, the organization’s most recent survey showed that 75 countries do not have adequate supply of donated blood that are readily available for patients suffering from life-threatening conditions and for emergencies arising from natural and man-made calamities.

In the Philippines, the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has appealed to the Filipinos’ innate sense of heroism – of their readiness to help – to encourage more people to donate blood in their 82 blood service facilities operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

All it takes to donate blood, according to PRC, is 15 minutes after the requisite medical tests on the  donors have been accomplished. But those 15 minutes can save lives as “blood donation spells the difference between life and death,” said PRC chair Richard Gordon.

Last June 12, during Independence Day celebrations, many Filipinos resorted to waving or to hanging Philippine flags in their cars and homes to honor the blood-letting of heroes like Dr. Jose Rizal and Gat. Andres Bonifacio for the cause of freedom. 

But there’s a kind of blood-letting that most Filipino adults can participate in to become heroes in their own right – the kind that saves lives. Be a blood donor today. Who knows the life you may be saving in the future may be your very own. -end-

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