BLOOD DONORS NEEDED

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23537, 15 January 1942, Page 6

BLOOD DONORS NEEDED

* PREPARATION IN CASE OF EMERGENCY E.P.S. AT PUBLIC HOSPITAL Several thousand persons are needed at once as blood donors for the separate Emergency Precautions Services of the Christchurch Public Hospital. A blood bank will be built up at the hospital and at smaller depots round the city, and in the event of an emergency donors would be called to the hospital as required. Persons with no other Emergency Precautions Services work are urged to volunteer. “The actual transfusion, for which a local anaesthetic is used, is a painless matter, taking from half to threequarters of an hour,” Dr. K. F. M. Uttley, of the pathological department of the Christchurch Public Hospital, said yesterday. Persons up to 65 years of age, as long as they were fairly fit, were asked to volunteer, and they could be assured there would be no after effects. In some cases, for instance people with high blood pressure, .the loss of a pint of blood or less was actually beneficial, “The best advertisements we have are the blood donors themselves. When they have been once they are always willing to come again,” Dr. Uydey said. Except in case of emergency, no person would be called more often than once every three months. Women donors were just as good as, if not better than, men, and in the past they had responded better than men to various anpeals. When a blood bank is built up, the blood is stored in refrigerators. In certain cases the plasma, or fluid blood, is drawn off, and this will keep several months. The advantages of the plasma are that it can be used for any group, without previous testing, and in certain cases, such as shock, is bettor f han the nure blood. Intending volunteers are asked either to telephone or call at the pathological department at the Christchurch Public Hospital for enrolment and the preliminary test. Further details will be given on request.