Give blood, give life — Gbubemi Atimomo

Pondering on the need to improve our blood donation culture

Early this year, there was an accident in Lagos, Nigeria involving a BRT bus and a train. The driver of the BRT bus didn’t heed traffic signals and attempted to drive across the train tracks while a train was approaching. The resulting impact left at least six people dead and over eighty people injured with different degrees of injuries. Officials of the various traffic and emergency management agencies quickly rushed to the scene and transported the survivors to various government hospitals within the area. There were also calls for people to come forward and donate blood as the number of people needing blood transfusions was high and the various facilities did not have sufficient blood for the injured passengers.

Every year on the 14th of June, the World Health Organisation (WHO) celebrates “World Blood Donor Day”. The event was initiated to raise awareness about the importance of blood donation as giving blood can equate to giving life. Donating blood is one of the most altruistic things anyone can do and it is worth celebrating.

The slogan for this year’s World Blood Donor Day campaign was “Give blood, give plasma, share life, share often”. I didn’t realise that such a day existed until quite recently. Discovering this made me remember how many times I had gotten forwarded messages about an urgent need to donate blood for someone. Such messages are usually sent on-demand: the need is immediate. It could come from frontline medical professionals searching within their network as they battle to save a patient or relatives and friends of someone in dire need of blood transfusion.

I have always thought of blood donation as giving just the blood alone but while reading up about World Blood Donor Day, I discovered that other products within the blood are useful in medicine. These include red blood cells, fresh frozen plasma (FFP), platelets and cryoprecipitate which may be needed for a variety of medical procedures.

Blood donation is a critical and life-saving act that plays a pivotal role in healthcare systems worldwide. I have to confess that I have never donated blood. I fully understand the need to but I have just never found myself in a position to do so. I can imagine that many people like me are open to the idea but have never taken action and there could be several reasons for this. For many people, their reason for not donating blood could be a lack of awareness. A lot of advocacy groups champion the need for blood donation but very often, the awareness may not be so widely spread. Where does one go to donate blood? What are the protocols around blood donation? How often can one donate blood?

If you think about it, you probably don’t receive information about donating blood in a structured or predictable way. Also, if one doesn’t come across the information consistently or if it isn’t tied to a need to give to a known person, the information doesn’t sink in as it should. Time constraints may be another reason for the inability to donate blood. Contrary to what some people may think, the decision to donate blood requires planning and preparation as one needs to rest after. Some other people may also have pre-existing health conditions which may make it difficult for them to give blood as they need all the blood they can keep or their blood may not even be of the right quality.

For those who receive prompts to donate blood, the call for donations is often most prevalent in accident and emergency cases. These are unplanned situations and there is a definite urgency around the need for blood. However, there are also regular medical conditions that require blood donations. Patients undergoing basic surgeries always require blood due to the potential for possible blood loss during the surgery. Women in labour are probably high on the list as blood loss during childbirth is quite common. Patients managing conditions such as sickle cell anaemia may also require frequent blood infusions which can only be received from blood donors.

Blood donations save lives. I can only wonder how many people may be alive today because some people took time out to donate their blood. Such people may not have even donated to a specific person or for a specific incident but their life-giving blood came in just in time to save another life. Many people in accident situations, undergoing surgery, or even with known life-threatening illnesses have benefited from donors they never knew and I am sure they will forever remain thankful for that.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that Nigeria needs about 1.8 million units of blood per annum, based on our population size of 200 million people in the country. According to the National Blood Service Commission (NBSC), Nigeria gets only about 27% (500,000 pints) of its annual blood need from voluntary blood donors, leaving a shortfall of about 73.3% of blood need every year. This is a huge gap considering the estimated national blood needs.

Many blood drives are often initiated by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), public health agencies, and family/ friends of people in need. In some cases, some people receive some form of incentive to donate blood. WHO however notes that voluntary non-remunerated blood donation accounts for only 10% of total blood collection in the country. Thus, more and more healthy citizens need to imbibe the habit of voluntarily donating blood when able, especially during emergencies.

More Nigerians should be educated on the need to become regular blood donors as the blood donated today can just be the one that saves a life in the future. If we have more non-incentivised blood donors, it would be easier to build up our national blood need which would put less pressure on medical personnel begging people to donate blood, especially in emergencies.

Hazarding a guess, I would say that it is only people who have been formally educated and those who have experienced emergencies, that may understand the need for blood donation. We need to educate more people especially those who are in small communities whilst we build a culture around donating blood. I can imagine how many old wives’ tales there are about donating and receiving blood too, and the associated fear. Already, there are concerns by some religious bodies about giving and receiving blood so we can imagine what hindrances may exist when we consider tradition.

Imbibing the culture of blood donation encourages people to get regular health tests as blood would usually need to be screened before being used. I wonder how many people could be alerted to serious health conditions simply because they decided to donate their blood. There is also the added satisfaction of knowing that one’s simple donation could be someone else’s lifesaver. Donating blood regularly also helps ensure that our health facilities are strengthened and not under undue pressure during emergencies.

I am not quite sure if we have adequate blood banks and the associated resources across the nation especially in public health facilities. Blood banks must have the necessary infrastructure to maintain the integrity of blood and blood products so that the donated blood remains viable under adequate storage. This is necessary because if awareness about blood transfusion increases and more people donate blood, we need to be sure that the blood is stored properly and available for future uses.

Have you ever donated blood? If you are like me and you have heard a lot about donating blood but haven’t done so, you may want to consider becoming a blood donor. Many people owe their lives to blood donors today and donating blood could be one way of boosting one’s emotions when you realise the benefits it brings to others. Let us contribute our quota towards saving lives across the country. This is the way I see things today.