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.
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.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe