GIVING ONE’S BLOOD

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 44, 16 November 1925, Page 10

GIVING ONE’S BLOOD

A few weeks ago I answered an appeal for blood donors, people who are willing to go anywhere at a moment’s notice and give their blood to save a stranger’s life (writes Doris Arthur Jones in the “Daily Mail”). The first step after being enrolled is to go to any hospital to have one’s blood tested. Donors must, of course, be ■ healthy, and preferably between the ages of twenty and forty. It is imperative to know to which blood group they belong. There are four groups, and only those who belong to group four are universal donors and can be used for transfusion to any one of the four groups. Transfusion of the wrong blood kills.

I had my blood tested, and one evening about ten I was asked to go immediately to the Royal Free Hospital. A Welshman had been run over; his leg was fractured, and he was bleeding internally. Alas! a mistake had been made—l was in the wrong group. . The Red Cross scoured London, unsuccessfully, to find a donor belonging to group four. Meanwhile the poor fellow was dying. The second call was to the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic. The patient was an cx-Service man suffering from malignant endocarditis, a terribly serious form of heart disease. Transfusion is scarcely ever done direct. A tourniquet was put on my arm, and a hollow needle inserted in a vein, the blood being received in a glass bottle. About three-quarters of a pint to a pint is the usual amount taken. The process was not any more unpleasant than a slight attack of pins and needles, and of pricking one’s finger sewing. Nor did I suffer any ill-effects afterwards, except, a slight languor tor a few days. I was very glad to hear the patient was slightly better. People who are used for transfusion make up the blood lost in from three weeks to two -months. Many donors have been used once or twice in less than that time. In 1923 ten transfusions were carried out from the Red Cross volunteers, m 1921 the number rose to 62, and this year up to date there have been 250 transfusions.

It seems quite wonderful to think anyone can at such a small cost save the life of another. I know of no other service that one can render suffering humanity which carries with it such a reward of heartfelt thankfulness.