Rotary Club boosts Lagos blood bank with 120 pints

IN furtherance of its core objectives of touching lives and being a gift to the world, the Rotary Club of Lagos Palmgrove Estate, in collaboration with the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service and two Indian communities, Kerala Samajam and Rajasthani Samaj, have donated about 120 pints of blood to the Lagos State general hospitals.

Speaking at the event, which took place at the club’s secretariat in Lagos, President of the club, Pradeep Pahalwani, remarked that the yearly exercise was aimed at contributing to the depleting stock of blood at the blood bank in Lagos State hospitals.

“This is our first service project for the year 2016, which is tagged ‘Blood Donation Campaign’ with a view to collecting blood from voluntary donors and donate to Lagos State. The state in turn uses the blood for accident victims among others and we believe each pint collected would save about two to three lives.

“As we speak, we are close to collecting 100 pints and I believe that before the end of the exercise, we would arrive at 120 pints. During the last exercise, we collected 150 pints,” he said.

Pahalwani disclosed that the blood donation was subject to initial screening through the filling of a form, followed by establishing the donor’s status of high blood pressure vis-à-vis that of hemoglobin, adding that successful scaling through of the three stages qualified a prospective donor.

The president also made it known that in addition to the blood donation campaign, the club was making arrangement to create an awareness on Lassa fever that had been threatening the lives of Nigerians.

Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of the Blood Donation campaign, Santosh Kakade, said it was a challenge to convince people to make themselves available for the exercise.

“It was an issue sensitising people to donate blood and we had to talk to them extensively, assuring them that there was no side effect and that donating their blood would even boost their blood level.

“We also made it known to them that they could fall victim in case they too needed the blood and how embarrassing it would be if they are told of the dearth of blood in the blood bank and as such, are denied treatment,” he said.

A representative of the Indian partners, Captain Anicen Pulickal, hinged the collaboration on the fact that blood donation had to do with saving lives and the fact that patients in critical condition would benefit from the gesture.

One of the donors, Dishan Pal, said he came to donate as he regarded blood donation as a social service.

“I believe we all have our part to play when it comes to social responsibility. I feel happy that I have donated a part of me to a worthy cause,” he said.