Blood

I have talked about blood before. How if a patient needs blood, we are the walking blood bank. I know the blood type of my colleagues. You never know when you will need to call them up and ask when they last gave blood because you need theirs now. Usually people here will have to bring in their own blood donors if they go into a hospital knowing they will need a transfusion. Last week a VVF patient needed one so we asked her to call her family. She needed two units so we needed two people to come in. Even though she was from Guinea she still knew enough people in Freetown that her family was able to call around and find two people to come in. Even though they were not the type we needed, it still helped to give us blood in our bank and we were still able to get her the type she needed.

The blood drama of the day started yesterday. When a patient needs a blood transfusion, you know it is going to be a long day. Yesterday there was one patient and today another. We still had not finished with the blood drama of yesterday before today had started. Both the VVF patients who needed blood did not know anyone in Freetown. We did not have the correct type of blood in our bank. Next step, ask those who work at the centre. Ok. I still don't understand what it is, but giving blood is taboo here. Even the woman who is going into the community to advocate for blood donations would not give today even though she knew she was the right type. I asked probably thirty people today if they would donate. Only five people were willing to even be tested to see if they were the right match.

Here are some of my favorite excuses:

I'm fasting.

I have high blood pressure.

My menses stopped yesterday.

I don't have enough.

I am not the right type. (After hearing that we couldn't take someone with AB blood,

all of a sudden eveyone had AB blood)

I am not prepared to do it today...ask me tomorrow.

I gave a year ago and I'm still working on getting it back.

Yes. Some are legit excuses. Most just made me laugh. One man I found to be tested was a caregiver of a sick child in the outpatient pediatric clinic. He didn't work here. He was just willing to help. Too bad he wasn't a right match! Now we have him to call if we need him though. I'm sure some had health issues they didn't want known even to the lab guys and that is completely legit. It just surprises me that it was so difficult to find someone to help another person when there is so much suffering here to start with. With everyone I talked with I tried to teach them the fallacy in their thinking but there is something is so engrained in their thinking that donating blood is not something you do.

How do you change this?