Skip to main content

Donate Blood, Donate Love...not tomorrow, Today.

By
Let's call her Jane Hove.

She came in on Thursday night. I had been on call for 13 hours when I first starting clerking her into admission to our wards. I was still in the pleasant stage mood. A thirty six year old peasant woman from a village in Mashonaland West. She had been diagnosed with HIV a couple of years ago, each year ridden with different opportunistic infections, the current one being TB which had affected not only her lungs but also a form of meningitis we term TB Meningitis. These were straight forward to treat on antiTB's and steroids, but unfortunately for Jane, because of chronic illness and side effects of some of her ARV's, Jane also had Severe Anemia and was going into heart failure because of this.

On average a unit of blood in a state hospital in Zimbabwe costs $100. Jane needed 3 pints to get her haemoglobin up to the bare minimum. Not only was there a shortage of blood, she also couldn't afford one pint.

We lost Jane on Sunday afternoon.

Let us this February show our love by donating blood through a Blood Drive campaign by JCI City & JCI Harare. Every Drop Counts 

Safe blood saves lives and improves health. Blood transfusion is needed for:
  • women with complications of pregnancy, such as ectopic pregnancies and haemorrhage before, during or after childbirth;
  • children with severe anaemia often resulting from malaria or malnutrition;
  • people with severe trauma following accidents; and
  • many surgical and cancer patients.
It is also needed for regular transfusions for people with conditions such as thalassaemia and sickle cell disease and is used to make products such as clotting factors for people with haemophilia.
There is a constant need for regular blood supply because blood can be stored for only a limited time before use. Regular blood donations by a sufficient number of healthy people is needed to ensure that safe blood will be available whenever and wherever it is needed.

Blood is the most precious gift that anyone can give to another person — the gift of life. A decision to donate your blood can save a life, or even several if your blood is separated into its components — red cells, platelets and plasma — which can be used individually for patients with specific conditions.

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2013 at 9:12 AM

    Saddening about Jane. Very. Where can one donate blood in Bulawayo?

    ReplyDelete
  2. SteeFebruary 12, 2013 at 9:40 AM

    There should be a National Blood Transfusion Centre in Mpilo. Let me find out for you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saving Mandy

By
When you have influence, it is your duty to stand up for others and help others up too We had so much in common.  We were both born and grew up in the same sleepy hometown of Bulawayo, almost same neighborhood. We attended the same high school, some years apart, but both proud and loud Convent girls. At some point, we must have taken the same Parklands surburb bus from City Hall to home. Our siblings almost same age-groups; our families and friends intertwined all the way back to roots in Dombodema rural home. We both went on to study medicine, she did dentistry, I did MBChB. But eventually we both did a masters in Public Health in the same programme at the University of Zimbabwe. We both got married and set up home in Harare. Bulawayo girls stick together when they arrive in the big bad city. When I had Anashe, she had Siyabonga. We were both pregnant in 2018. Being senior medical professionals we both had access to the “best” medical care. We both had Cesarian Sections...
60 comments
Read more

Waiting for Healing: The Quiet Crisis at Parirenyatwa Radiotherapy Centre

By
Every morning, before Harare has woken up, there is already a line forming. Not a short or orderly queue that moves with predictable rhythm. No, a long, patient, aching line of people who have nowhere else to go. I drop off my relative there each weekday at the Radiotherapy Centre at Parirenyatwa Hospital. He is battling a brain tumor. That alone is a heavy sentence to carry. But it is not the only burden he carries. Because before treatment comes waiting. And before waiting comes arriving early enough to have a chance. The Queue That Starts at Midnight There are two queues. One for those who can pay or who have been marked as priority. And one for everyone else. Both queues are unpredictable. You can wait for hours on any unsuspecting day. By midnight, people are already gathering. They sit or lie down holding their place in a tent outside the centre. Names are written down and some have made a business of queueing for others. Many have travelled from outside the capital city. Fro...
5 comments
Read more

Do Long Distance Relationships Work?

By
Health is defined as a state of physical, mental and social well-being (WHO 1946). Did you notice the SOCIAL part? Many doctors overlook this integral part of their patients needs. I have decided to tackle this issue of long-distance relationships because countless friends and family in couples are separated due to job obligations, school or other circumstances. So the question is: do long distance relationships actually work? Who are you dating? Joe Tracy, publisher of Online Dating Magazine believes that long distance relationships require very strong trust, commitment, guidelines and communication. " Studies show that a majority of people involved in long distance relationships eventually break up. That's why you see so many "experts" proclaiming that long distance relationships are a bad idea and don't work. Yet if you learn to master communication and set the parameters of your relationship, it can work. It's an uphill battle, but it is possible ...
10 comments
Read more