Tue, Jan 09, 2024 page3

• Group urges blood donations ahead of long holiday

  LACK OF SUPPLY: The nation’s blood supply fell below the 10-day safety threshold, with this month being declared ‘blood donation month’ to help stanch the shortage

  • By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
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  Taiwan Blood Services Foundation yesterday encouraged people to donate blood to help others, as it expressed its hope to reach a safe blood supply of 10 days before the long Lunar New Year holiday, when fewer people donate blood.

  As of yesterday, there are about 7.9 days of blood stock left nationwide, it added.

  The cold winter months are associated with higher incidence of cardiac events and increased blood demand, foundation CEO Wei Sheng-tang (魏昇堂) yesterday said.

  

  Taiwan Blood Services Foundation officials hold placards along with event guests at a press conference in Taipei yesterday, calling for a blood donation drive.

  Photo: CNA

  However, as fewer people donate blood in cold weather and during the long holidays, the foundation has made the month before the Lunar New Year its annual “blood donation month” to encourage blood donation, he said.

  This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the start of blood donation in Taiwan and the public has increasingly accepted the idea of donating blood, he said, adding however that Taiwan’s falling birthrate and aging population means there are fewer people are eligible to donate.

  Using last month’s case of a junior-high school student who was stabbed to death by a classmate as an example, Wei said the hospital who treated the victim had at first asked for 100 bags of blood at once, which came to 25 liters of blood, more than the 5 liter blood volume of an average adult.

  Even after receiving a total blood transfusion of about 60 liters, the student could not be saved.

  Some cancer patients also require large blood transfusions, and as Taiwan’s population is rapidly aging, the total blood demand continues to increase, so the foundation encourages people to make a habit of donating blood, he said.

  A total of 2,858,283 bags of blood were donated last year, a 1.3 percent increase to the 2,821,815 bags donated in the previous year, but the blood demand also increased by 2 percent last year, Wei said.

  Tan Che-Kim (陳志金), an attending physician at Chi Mei Hospital’s Department of Intensive Care Medicine, said that aside from medicine, blood is an important and irreplaceable tool for saving lives, and blood donation is “using life to support life.”

  Tan also shared a case of a pregnant woman who had a massive hemorrhage after giving birth and whose life was saved after receiving 28 bags of blood, which he said was “love from 28 strangers,” adding that he encourages people to donate blood.

  Li you-hsiang (黎友翔), a 33-year-old man who had second to third-degree burns on about 30 percent of his body from the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park dust explosion in 2015, said he first donated blood when he was in high school and kept doing so as he believed it could “easily help others.”

  When he was rushed to a hospital with another friend in the 2015 incident, he told him “let’s hang in there together,” but did not expect those to be the last words he said to his friend, Li said, adding that he was hospitalized for more than a month and received many blood transfusions.

  He felt deeply that he was saved by many blood donors, and he continues to donate blood and platelets regularly to help others, Li said.

  The foundation encourages people to donate blood, especially before Feb. 8, so that patients could safely have a sufficient blood supply for treatment during the long Lunar New Year holiday.
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