BLOOD DONATION :- A SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

INTRODUCTION

You dont have to be a doctor to save a life!'

There are many simple things that you can do to save someones life. Blood donating is one
of these simple things. Blood donation is a voluntary process wherein volunteers provide
their blood for a community supply. It is important that every individual is aware of blood
donation basics and fully comprehends the vital importance of the whole process. Often, the
amount of donated blood, even few millilitres, can save other persons life

BLOOD DONATION- A Legal Act

The process is entirely bona fide in most countries assuming that donors are willing to
help others. It is crucially important for any country to advance its blood transfusion system
to ensure regular, safe and sustainable blood supply.

It is important that the voluntary, unpaid blood donation become part of our culture
thats why more people should join the donor actions. states The Govt. of India

The blood donation approach and the legislation has been changed in all countries to
unpaid ones. Millions of people worldwide owe their lives to people they will never meet or
talk to - people who freely donate their blood without asking for any reward.

THE BLOOD DONATION PROCESS

Its an easy procedure which is divided into three steps.

Screening
Donating
Refreshing

The first stage in blood donating is Screening. In this stage, Volunteer will be asked to
complete a form and show an ID card. Next, He/She will be asked for some health history
questions and do a few tests (i.e. iron level, blood pressure and pulse checked) for your and
people good.

Donating is the second stage. In this stage, donor will be asked to sit on a chair, their arm
will be cleaned with alcohol and a needle will be inserted into a vein in the arm. After 15
minutes, when nearly a pint of blood has been collected, the needle will be removed and a
bandage will be placed on their arm.

In the final stage i.e Refreshing, He/She will spend a few minutes enjoying refreshments to
replace the fluids that you lost during donation. Then, you can leave the donation centre and
continue with their normal daily activities.
THE DONORS

Giving blood does not just benefit recipients. Regardless of age, donating blood offers
many benefits for donors. If you are healthy, your body-which has between 10 and 12 pints of
blood-can easily spare about a pint, the amount that is collected at a donation. Because the
body begins replacing donated blood immediately, most people can give blood every eight
weeks.

There are 2 kinds of Blood donors.

An Allogeneic donor
A Directed donor

An 'allogeneic' (also called 'homologous') donor is a donor who gives blood for
storage at a blood bank for transfusion to an unknown recipient.

A 'directed' donor is a person, often a family member, donates blood

for transfusion to a specific individual.

STORAGE AND BLOOD SHELF LIFE

The collected blood is usually stored in a blood bank as separate components, and
some of these have short shelf lives. There are no storage solutions to keep platelets for
extended periods of time, though some are being studied as of 2008. The longest shelf life
used for platelets is seven days.
Red blood cells (RBC), the most frequently used component, have a shelf life of 35
42 days at refrigerated temperatures. For (relatively rare) long-term storage applications, this
can be extended by freezing the blood with a mixture of glycerol, but this process is
expensive and requires an extremely cold freezer for storage.
Plasma can be stored frozen for an extended period of time and is typically given an
expiration date of one year and maintaining a supply is less of a problem.
THE DEMAND FOR BLOOD

When another human being is struggling for life as cause of loss of blood, in an
accident, war ordinary emergency, the blood bank will examine his blood and supply a blood
from its storage which corresponds with the blood group of that person. In this way, hundreds
of lives have been saved in our country.

Among the blood groups, O-positive group is the universal donor, and can be
transferred in the blood stream of persons of any other group. AB- positive is the Universal
Recipient and can accept any other stream of blood.

HEALTH BENEFITS

In patients prone to iron overload, blood donation prevents the accumulation of toxic
quantities. Donating blood may reduce the risk of heart disease for men, but the link has not
been firmly established and may be from selection bias because donors are screened for
health problems.
 Research published in 2012 demonstrated that repeated blood donation is effective in
reducing
Blood Pressure (BP)
Blood Glucose,
HbA1c, low-density lipoprotein/high-density lipoprotein ratio, and
Heart Rate.

BLOOD DONATION THE FUTURE GROWTH

It is said that India will have the youngest population in the near future aged between
18-35 years. This would give India the opportunity to lead the world. But we also want this
new young generation to be healthy for which it is our prime responsibility today to ensure
that we fulfil our duties in contributing towards health care. Just as an individual has the
responsibility towards his nation, business organization and family, similarly one also has to
fulfil his responsibility towards the society.
THE BLOOD DONATION DAY

The World Health Organization recognizes World Blood Donor Day on 14 June each
year to promote blood donation. This is the birthday of Karl Landsteiner, the scientist who
discovered the ABO blood group system.
The theme of the 2012 World Blood Donor Day campaign,
"Every blood donor is a hero"
focuses on the idea that everyone can become a hero by giving blood. As of 2008, the WHO
estimated that more than 81 million units of blood were being collected annually.
CONCLUSION
Nowadays blood donating becomes more and more common and takes a more
important part in medical treatment career. Fresh and healthy blood is needed everywhere.
Many people join the group of donating blood, to consider that to be an obligation for a
member of the society. It is a gift for us to keep on giving.

Actually, blood donating will not do harm to your health, but will refresh you blood and
make you healthier. The volunteer donors may gain a special feeling of happiness from blood
donating. Just 1 pint of blood can save three lives.

I highly recommend everyone to give blood whenever they got the chance to. It
could save your life!