LOST A LOT OF BLOOD

[~Vēġó~]

I wants one!!!!!!!!!!

[TRAE]

for real how does one go about storing blood for them self?

[Razkal]

what are the rules and regs for donating individuals with tattoos? and smokers? or smokers WITH tattoos?

[DrunkenMaster16]

I smoke, and I gave my blood the other day with no issues in the screening and or etc.

BTW smoked my 1st ciggy as I usually do around 8 am and donated at 9.. after smoking 2 more.

Tattoo's I believe you need to have them for 6 - 12 mths b4 you can give blood. (never got inked, never asked) Skully wrote something along those lines years ago though... or was it dragist.. one of those old farts.

[Rahtid]

They should pay the people who give blood. I have some to sell!!! anybody buying?

[DrunkenMaster16]

300 $ is the going rate ppl charge / get paid for blood.

My blood's worth more than that to me.. pay me in saving a friend's or family member's life.

[chevy3k]

a pint was going for as much as $1100 on the black market.

this is one of the schemes the ministry is trying to root out.

[chevy3k]

I smoke, and I gave my blood the other day with no issues in the screening and or etc.

BTW smoked my 1st ciggy as I usually do around 8 am and donated at 9.. after smoking 2 more.

Tattoo's I believe you need to have them for 6 - 12 mths b4 you can give blood. (never got inked, never asked) Skully wrote something along those lines years ago though... or was it dragist.. one of those old farts.

there,s no restriction on smoking however if you've had a piercing or tattoo, you would be deferred for 12 months (most times it's from the date the job was done) , after which your blood would be drawn and tested.
it would again be tested a second time after for confirmation of purity.

[~Vēġó~]

DM they say last cig should be at least 3 hours before giving....I try to comply but it's really tough...

[chevy3k]

Home » News
Children’s lives in danger...
Mom makes urgent appeal for blood
Published: Sat, 2011-03-19 Trinidad Guardian page A9
Radhica Sookraj




Fifteen-year-old Kasturi Harricharan and her eight-year-old brother Sachdev Harricharan are begging for a chance to live. But with a shortage of blood in the country, their requests may take a little longer. The siblings, of Mount Stewart Village, Princes Town, suffer from a genetic blood disease called thalassaemia major—a deadly and incurable ailment which they inherited from their parents Sunita and Gerard Harricharan. Both parents are carriers of the minor thalassaemia genes, which they, too, would have inherited from their parents.

Although they do not carry the exact symptoms of their children, Gerard and Sunita suffer from a low blood count but do not require blood transfusions. Their children, however, must have blood transfusions every three to four weeks or else they will die. Breaking down in tears, Sunita said it was difficult to get blood because of a severe shortage at Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. “This morning we went there and they told us that they only have blood for emergency cases,” Sunita said. She added that Sachdev got 200 ml of blood but Kasturi was still waiting.

The distraught mother explained that at the last transfusion, Kasturi fell ill and did not get her quota. Fearful of a rapid decline in her daughter’s blood count, Sunita said she wanted Health Minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis to review her decision to stop specific donations of blood to the various health institutions. “Previously, if we want to donate blood, donors would get a donor card which will guarantee that the blood goes to whoever they want it to go to,” she said.

“Now there is still no guarantee even if we get donors because they are telling us that the blood will go to emergency cases first and my daughter is not regarded as an emergency case. “Her blood count will have to go under five before she is diagnosed as an emergency case, but I do not want that to happen because she could die,” Sunita cried. Kasturi says when her blood count drops, she gets dizzy spells, headaches and fatigue. “My bones start to enlarge and fluid starts to gather around my heart...I get lots of pain in my arms and legs,” she said.

“All I can do is just lie down...I can’t study or even walk.” The teenager, who attends Ste Madeleine Secondary School, said she would live a normal life as long as she got transfusions every three weeks. She said because of excess iron in her body after transfusions, she had to take special medication to rid her body of iron. Kasturi said she did not know what she wanted to become when she grew up. “I can’t see that far in the future...All I want is to have a normal healthy life—thalassaemia-free,” she said. She made an appeal to members of the public to donate blood. “You should not be afraid...It is easy and you will be saving so many lives,” Kasturi said. Baptiste-Cornelis could not be reached for comment yesterday as calls to her cellular phone went unanswered.

[~Vēġó~]

^^^would a bone marrow transplant help in this instance?

[hydroep]

My friends the blood bank needs our support,they need our blood,however there is no incentive for us to donate except to know that someone....someone we may not know, life is being saved by our contiued donation.

this is not good enough for me.....

Is it good enough for you???

No.

all that has to happen is for some enterprising person to set up a separate facility for storing blood and have it operate like a true blood bank.

Users would pay a storage fee/premium.

Hmmm...and some bigwig may get the exclusive license to do that. In any case there was some doctor on TV the other day claiming that the system is all ready well managed (yeah, right), they just need donors. According to him, all blood and blood products only have a shelf life of 28 days.

they should make it the law for healthy citizens from the age of 18 to donate blood at least once per year .

No, that sets a dangerous precedent.

a pint was going for as much as $1100 on the black market.

this is one of the schemes the ministry is trying to root out.

Unfortunately their move may have exacerbated the situation since removing the incentive may have reduced the supply .

[chevy3k]

^^^would a bone marrow transplant help in this instance?

I'm not quite sure.
But clearly these kids have been living for 15 & 8 years respectively, so they were recieving blood all along.
Now people want to help and give and you are saying the kids cannot get the blood unless their blood count goes below 5.
Great..... just great.

[chevy3k]

Paying in blood
Published: Sun, 2011-03-20 Trinidad Guardian page A26
Editorial


Earlier this month, at the opening of the Eye Theatre and Eye/ENT Ward at the San Fernando General Hospital, Minister of Health Therese Baptiste-Cornelis declared that there was no shortage of blood at the National Blood Transfusion Service, long colloquially known as the Blood Bank. “The amount that we used to have when people were paying is not there, but it does not mean that we have a shortage either. So we are looking into it” the Minister declared. The Health Minister explained that the chit or diary system in use for decades at the Blood Bank led to some people selling their capacity to give fresh blood or previously donated blood for sums as high as $1,100 per pint. Clearly, any system that led to a black market in blood was a system that was being abused in ways it wasn’t designed for and the chit system was formally abandoned on December 31, 2010. In adopting the recommendations of the World Health Organisation, the Ministry of Health moved from one system that was prone to borderline criminal abuse to another that hasn’t been fully articulated to the public. At the opening of the Eye/ENT Ward, Minister Baptiste-Cornelis promised that a campaign would soon be announced to increase voluntary donors.

Unfortunately, that gap, and the lack of clear communication with the medical community and the public, has led to shortfalls in the supply of blood that appear to defy the Minister’s pronouncements. Within hours of the Health Minister assuring the public that the supply of blood was adequate, Acting Medical Director of the San Fernando General Hospital, Anand Chatoorgoon was telling another story: “We are having problems with the availability of blood and therefore surgeries that require blood may well have to be postponed.” Despite the claims of value to the chit system, Trinidad and Tobago has long been chronically undersupplied with blood at the Transfusion Service. The Blood Bank collects 20, 000 pints of blood annually for a medical system that the Ministry of Health estimates requires 65, 000 pints. To reach those levels, one in 20 citizens should give blood at least once a year, though healthy persons of median age can donate up to three times per year. On June 14, 2010, the Ministry of Health held a walkathon in observance of World Blood Donor Day and announced that a fully voluntary system would be coming later that year. That sort of general awareness building is fine when a system is functioning and reminders are all that are needed to keep the supply of blood adequate, but the situation facing the health sector now demands a much smarter, more focused sales pitch.
The immediate challenge facing the Health Ministry and the National Blood Transfusion Service is dispelling the negative perceptions of blood donation and the expectations of the previous system in which donors “owned” blood. A new attitude, particularly among young people, about offering their most precious resource as a civic duty to their fellow nationals should be encouraged.

This, as can be readily imagined, won’t be particularly easy. It isn’t widely known that blood has a short shelf life of just 30 days, and the supply must be replenished constantly. Donating blood involves needles and the loss of, well, one’s blood in a clinical environment. There is no immediate payback beyond a sense of having done a good deed and for some, momentary dizziness that soon passes. Blood donors are a critical component in the business of medical practice, and the Ministry of Health would be on sound ground in pursuing campaigns that leverage their regular, committed donors as evangelists on their part. The Ministry should further begin discussions, and join in others already in progress online and in social media, about the new blood donation methodology. Stories of lives saved by the intervention of an adequate blood supply might bring a welcome humanity to these discussions and reinforce the critical nature of an informed community of blood donors. Those conversations should begin soon, because donors need to be informed by the dynamics of this new process, and the medical community must more fully understand the challenges facing them in explaining the need for donations to reinvigorate the flow of blood from the healthy to the ailing who need it as a matter of life and death.

Editorial

[Chimera]

a pint was going for as much as $1100 on the black market.

this is one of the schemes the ministry is trying to root out.

brb

[chevy3k]

Health Ministry launches collection drive...
Baptiste-Cornelis: Blood Bank running low
Published: Sat, 2011-03-26 Trinidad Guardian page A8





Minister of Health Therese Baptiste-Cornelis acknowledged that there was less blood in the system than there was last year. She was, however, hesitant to say that there was a “shortage of blood.” The supply dropped after the removal of the blood chit system in January. Baptiste-Cornelis said the blood chit system was discontinued due to abuse, saying donors with chits were selling them for thousands of dollars to those desperate for blood.

Since the start of January, the Port-of-Spain Blood Bank has lost approximately 500 units of blood per month. Baptiste-Cornelis is urging the public to come forward to donate blood to help those who are in desperate need of supply. She made the appeal at yesterday’s launch of a blood collection drive by the Ministry of Health at the National Blood Transfusion Unit headquarters at Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain. She said for the emergency blood supply to meet and surpass what was needed, every day 50 people needed to donate blood at the unit in Port-of-Spain.

The Blood Bank has lost approximately 500 units per month due to the scrapping of the blood chit system. The public has been reluctant to donate blood since the chit system was discontinued, according to Justin Sankar of the Blood Transfusion Unit. Sankar who is an acting medical laboratory technician III at the unit explained that under the chit system, blood donors were given a chit which they could use to retrieve their blood in emergencies. When the practice was stopped, the public became hesitant to donate blood fearing if they needed it they could not get it back, he said. Soca artiste Denyse Belfon lent her support to collection drive and donated blood to the cause.

[chevy3k]

the blood bank will now be open on Saturdays to accommodated those persons who are unable to denote during the week. hours will be 8am - 4pm.

the ministry is now looking for an alternative to address the reluctance of donors since the new system rolled out. the minister says if the old system was to return it would have to be closely monitored,however they are very reluctant to return to this old system.

[chevy3k]

Govt stops ‘corrupt’ blood donor system
Published: Fri, 2011-04-08 page A16 Trinidad guardian

Health Minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis says the blood donor system where people were donating for specific surgeries was corrupt and has been discontinued. She said so during yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the St Clair Office of the Prime Minister. Baptiste-Cornelis said an investigation was being carried out into the matter. She said the blood being donated for specific people were not being given to them and it was more desirable to establish a system of voluntary donation in T&T.

She also revealed the vehicles used by the Friends of the Blood Bank were not appropriate for the collection of blood but for the storage of the commodity. She said the blood was taken elsewhere and stored in the vehicles. She said she would seek Cabinet approval for the purchase of “proper mobile units” to collect and store blood.

Baptiste-Cornelis said while the ministry was not about micro-managing “we have taken control of this and we are going out there full steam ahead to make sure we upgrade this blood (donor) area (issue).”
She also said nurses from St Vincent, Cuba and the Philippines were expected to continue to work in T&T over the next year as there remained a significant shortage of those personnel locally. She said Cabinet yesterday approved the purchase of ten new ambulances to transport people to hospitals across the country.

[chevy3k]

full meals are now being offered to donors when they complete their good deed.
a different meal every day such as roti,pelau and more.
healthy stuff.

[~Vēġó~]

^^^sounds enticing........

if they were to revert to the old system I'm hoping that "lost" units would be credited back to the donors.

[chevy3k]

thats my hope also,however....i keep writing asking that the least they do is give donors a guarantee that themselves & immediate family member receive blood when needed without setbacks and the "red tape"
i don't think that it's too much to ask!

[mitsuboi]

An I say dis thread was bout Mosquitoes

But anyways good read.....surely opens ur eyes to d madness takin place in tnt

[chevy3k]

Blood shortage keeps boy’s life in balance at Sando hospital
Published: Sat, 2011-04-09 Trinidad guardian page A11

The blood shortage situation at the San Fernando General Hospital is bordering on critical as the life of a young boy, who fell off a tree and damaged his kidneys, hangs in the balance. Acting medical director of the San Fernando General Hospital Dr Lester Goetz confirmed that the child was passing blood in his urine and requires several units, which are not available at the hospital, to save his life. “We have given him one unit, because we do not have enough donors to help,” the doctor said yesterday. “We are running about 50 per cent below what we are used to. In the past we used to get about 30-35 donors a day, now we are down to ten-12,” he said. Dr Goetz said the hospital did not have enough units on hand to give to cancer and other patients who were in dire need of blood. “It is very frustrating for healthcare professionals to watch people in need and not be able to help them,” he said, as he made an appeal for members of the public to come forward and help save a life.

He said approval had been granted for the blood bank to be opened from 8 am to 2 pm, starting on April 16, to facilitate potential donors who worked during the week and were unable to make donations. “This is a first for San Fernando and I am appealing to all police officers, members of the army, corporate citizens, the general public to come forward and save a life.” Dr Goetz said the Saturday arrangement was not being put in place only for that crisis period, but will continue indefinitely. Consideration would also be given, he said, to opening the blood bank from 4 pm to 7 pm, Monday to Friday. “We are looking to see how this situation works out before we go there,” he said.

Dr Goetz said he was extremely concerned over what would happen if there was a major accident in the industrial south, as the region served approximately 600,000 persons. Earlier, South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) chairman Dr Lackram Bodoe confirmed that major crimes and road accidents resulting in major blood loss, were putting a strain on the already limited supply of blood at public health institutions. Bodoe said major crimes and serious road accidents, like those which recently claimed some 12 lives on the southern highway, would have used up a large portion of their blood supplies.

Speaking to the media during the SWRHA’s observance of World Health Day at the San Fernando City Auditorium on Thursday, Bodoe explained that while such situations would have caused a fluctuation in supplies, “our situation remains fairly stable.” He admitted, however: “There are days when we might probably have a shortage.” To ensure the supplies did not dry up, Bodoe said the SWRHA was looking at several strategies, such as asking certain groups to come forward and give blood.

[chevy3k]

Therese Baptiste-Cornelis:No chits for blood
By SEAN DOUGLAS Saturday, April 9 2011 Trinidad Newsday

HEALTH Minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis has said the removal of the “chit system” for donating blood should be no bar to persons wishing to donate blood to specific persons in need, such as relatives undergoing surgery.

She was answering Newsday’s queries at Thursday’s post-Cabinet news briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), St Clair. Reports up to now have been that the elimination of the “chit system” means donated blood can now be given to any emergency patient rather than a specifically intended recipient. However, the Minister has tried to allay these fears. She said the old system had led to a lot of corruption, so the Blood Bank had in January told her they were ending the chit system.

However, she said the new no-chit system also has its woes. “We have discovered — and asked for a comprehensive report — that the implementation of this no-chit system was not properly implemented. Even the current blood donors were not informed it was going to happen.” She said there is a lot of misconception about the new system. “Yes they did take away the chit system, and sometimes when people went to give blood for a specific case, they were told ‘what’s the point of giving it because you are not going to get the blood for the person?’”. She said the Ministry has been speaking to doctors and the regional health authority (RHA) boards about the problem. “Because if somebody goes in for surgery and you donate blood specifically for that person, that should not be a problem,” she said.

The Minister gave steps to facilitate for blood donors, such as extending the hours of the Blood Bank beyond 8 am to 4 pm, and onto Saturdays, and visiting remote communities. Newsday asked how to ensure a recipient gets blood donated on his/her behalf, in the absence of the chit system? “What we are looking at now is more like a letter, so you donate in lieu of someone and a letter is issued to relate to that donation you made.” She listed the woes of the chit system.

“What you had was false chits out there, blood being sold, people were not receiving the blood. “We were getting medical aid requests to buy blood. Just recently I had an MP write me for someone trying to recuperate $6,000 he spent to buy three pints of blood, but then he didn’t need the blood which had already been donated. He wanted me to give him the three pints back to him, or to give him back the $6,000.”

[MG Man]

this woman has no business being in th ehealth sector.heck she barely qualifies as a coherent human being
change ftw

[chevy3k]

Health Minister appeals for blood...
T&T needs 100 pints daily
Published: Sat, 2011-04-16 Trinidad Guardian page A7

Acute blood shortage hampers south surgeries.


Health Minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis says Trinidad and Tobago needs donation of 100 pints of blood a day to resolve the chronic blood shortage in the country. “If just 50 persons give blood every day, we will have enough blood to meet the demands of the population,” she said in a release yesterday. “I’m asking persons to become a voluntary blood donor today and to keep donating once or twice per year.” Baptiste-Cornelis said the average person can donate blood, every three months for males and every four months for females. The minister said they had always had a blood problem in Trinidad and Tobago “because we don’t have a type of people donating blood for love of life...It is always for a particular cause.”

Baptiste-Cornelis said her ministry was trying to change that culture. “If we get 100 pints a day, which amounts to 500 a week, that would be sufficient.” There are plans to open the blood banks on Saturdays. The ministry said if it got 600 pints of blood and 2,400 donors a month, “then we would not have a problem.” She noted the blood shortage became chronic when the chit system was disbanded because it had become a lucrative business opportunity for people to make money from “blood sale.” Donors charged as much as $1,000 for a pint of their blood.

The blood shortage has severely affected operations at all of the public hospitals. Hardest hit is San Fernando General Hospital where all elective surgeries have been put on hold. Only emergency cases are being dealt. Acting Medical Director Dr Lester Goetz and chairman of the South West Regional Health Authority Dr Lackram Bodoe have expressed concern about what could happen if there is a major accident. Goetz painted a gloomy picture: “People with cancer surgeries are being cancelled. People with major surgeries have to be cancelled. Then we have emergencies to deal with as well.” Bodoe said vehicular accidents and crimes, such as shootings, wounding and stabbing, were impacting negatively on the already short supply at the hospital.

Dr Goetz said up until last December, when the chit system was still in effect, they were receiving between 30 and 35 pints of blood a day in San Fernando. “Now we are down to 50 per cent of our capacity...We are down to 14 and 15 pints per day and this is what has caused the crisis,” he said. “My fear now is if there is a major accident and people need blood, the blood will not be available.” From this morning, the blood bank at San Fernando General Hospital will commence its Saturday opening from 8 am to 2 pm. Goetz appealed to the public to give blood to save lives. Special communications adviser at the Ministry of Health Judith Young Ruiz said people who are healthy and between the ages of 18 and 65 could donate blood. She advised people with tattoos to wait two years before donating blood.

Young Ruiz explained that they needed to constantly replenish their supply because blood could be stored only for 30 days. Baptiste-Cornelis said many people thought blood could be stored in the bank for future use. “The Blood Bank is more like a short-term deposit,” she said. She said the ministry was looking at the Blood Bank protocol which required people who had travelled to certain countries to wait six months before donating blood. The minister said they were also examining the rejection rate of people coming to donate, which was 22 per cent in T&T, while the average rejection rate in the world was 11 per cent.

[Chimera]

government should start paying for blood or giving some sort of financial incentive to donate blood.

I don't see why someone would go spend their time (and time=money) to volunteer to donate blood just for the sake of donating.

[chevy3k]

so i posted concerns on the ministry's face book page......
they responded saying as a donor they guarantee that your family would recieve blood once needed.
when i replied asking for clarification,since i know this not to be true, as i am fully aware of the way of the new system.THEY DELETED MY POSTINGS AND HAVE BANNED ME FROM COMMENTING ON THEIR WALL.

THATS DEVELOPED NATION STATUS FOR YOU!

and so i'll continue to lobby wherever i can.

[Chimera]

LOL WTF

ministry delete and ban u lol wtf

[chevy3k]

open on saturdays

SWRHA on a drive for blood
Published: Sun, 2011-04-17 Trinidad Guardian page A21
Kevon Felmineage




In light of the calls by Health Minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis for citizens to aid the chronic blood shortage, the South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) has launched new initiatives to combat the decreasing levels. Speaking at the blood bank yesterday, chairman of SWRHA Dr Lackram Bodoe said the blood banks were currently operating below 50 per cent of what should really be obtained on a daily basis. He said it was an historic occasion, as it was the first time the Blood Bank was opened on a Saturday. Bodoe said: “We utilise about 500 units of blood per month and therefore we want to have, ideally, between 30 and 50 units of blood donated per day. Currently, over the last couple of weeks, that number had dropped to about 15 at it’s lowest,” he said.

Bodoe said the Regional Health Authority (RHA) is currently looking into several initiatives. The bank’s current opening hours are from Monday to Friday from 8 am to 4 pm.

Some of the initiatives were:

• Opening from 7 am to 6 pm so people can donate before they go to work or after they come from work. These hours make it convenient to donors.

• Another initiative was to take the blood drive to the people. “We are still looking at the option of having a mobile blood unit that can go out, especially on weekends to different areas,” he said.

• The blood bank at the San Fernando hospital at present is only able to obtain blood and has to send it to Port-of-Spain for processing. Bodoe said the RHA was seeking to upgrade the San Fernando blood bank into a full service facility.

Bodoe was happy with yesterday’s turnout: “It is also doing well, in fact at this point in time at half nine we already have 25 potential donors.”