Extending blood donation to save lives

Having suffered from thalassemia for the past 16 years, Ms. Duong Bich Ngoc (Vinh Phuc) and her son have received more than 800 units of blood.

People in Hanoi donate blood after the call of the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion - Photo: BVCC

Ms. Ngoc said she was "grateful" to the voluntary blood donors, people who, although they had never met, silently gave their blood, saving the lives of her and her child. Ms. Ngoc and her son are just two of thousands of patients whose lives have been saved thanks to donated blood.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh once shared at a meeting with outstanding blood donors nationwide that today's science and technology are not yet capable of creating blood, but humanity can help those in need of blood.

Looking back over 30 years since the first humanitarian blood donation program, voluntary blood donation in our country has become a persistent and widespread humanitarian activity. Every year, Vietnam receives about 1.4 - 1.5 million units of blood; tens of thousands of people have donated blood more than 30, 50 times, even more than 100 times.

To have regular blood units to save lives, many localities have maintained a force of repeat blood donors, organized large-scale campaigns such as "Spring Festival", "Red Journey", "Gratitude Drops"... not only to timely supplement the national blood bank, but also to form the habit of donating blood as a regular act of kindness of the community.

However, the voluntary blood donation movement still faces many challenges. The amount of blood received is not stable, and shortages often occur during Tet or summer.

Just two months into the summer, the country experienced a blood shortage. The reason cited was that the annual campaign was not organized as planned.

That means thousands of patients in need of blood and emergency patients cannot receive timely treatment, and some may not survive.

In Hanoi, since the beginning of May, the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion has planned to organize mobile blood donation points throughout the city. Invitations to donate blood have been sent out.

On the institute's fanpage, they constantly "mention you" to reach blood donors. When organizing blood donation points, there were places where the initial number of registrations was only a few dozen, but hundreds of people participated. And to achieve those numbers, blood donation points must be organized as close to the people as possible.

A blood donor living far away cannot travel hundreds of kilometers to the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion to donate blood. However, if the blood donation point is located in a neighborhood, residential area or hospital near home, the number of people donating blood will certainly increase significantly.

Therefore, to make the voluntary blood donation movement truly sustainable, there needs to be a synchronous solution to maintain peak campaigns while simultaneously building a network of regular blood donors locally.

At the same time, encourage the participation of businesses, hospitals, schools, and religious organizations as "regular blood donation points".

Blood donation points must be organized periodically from commune level to hospital level, so that blood donors can easily access and donate blood right in their locality. This is something that many localities have not been able to do so far.

Our country has reached the 100 million population mark by 2025, and among them, tens of millions of people are eligible to donate blood voluntarily.

Each year, each person can donate whole blood 4 times, and platelets 10-12 times. Thus, if each person donates blood regularly, the number of blood units received each year will not only stop at 1.4 to 1.5 million but can be much more.

And only when each person considers blood donation as an essential part of a humane lifestyle, will we no longer worry about a shortage of blood to save lives, so that stories like that of Ngoc and her mother are not just luck, but a natural thing in a society that knows how to share.

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WILLOW

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/noi-dai-giot-mau-cuu-nguoi-20250813111130561.htm