Blood donations urgently needed in DR

AlterEgo

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(Maybe they need to consider offering a small payment to prospective donors????)

Dominican hospitals face a deficit of 200 thousand pints of blood

The donation stimulates the bone marrow to produce more blood and promotes health.

SANTO DOMINGO. The Dominican Republic has a deficit of 200 thousand pints of blood to supply the current demand of hospitals, a situation that would be alleviated if the population were sensitive about the donation issue, to save lives.

The data was made known during a talk with the participation of students from the San Miguel Arcángel educational center, located in Villa Mella, given by the Surgery Manager of the Ney Arias Lora Traumatology Hospital, Dr. Alejandro Soto.

The activity is part of the actions promoted by the management of the Ney Arias Lora Traumatology Hospital, directed by Dr. Amaury García Silverio, and which seeks to confront the difficult situation of the center regarding the availability of blood that should be used in patients who deserve to be Emergency operated when they arrive at the center injured with severe traumas.

The health establishment works in the formation of a Blood Donors Club to guarantee reducing the country's deficit and providing the service required by thousands of Dominicans.

In the country, deaths due to lack of blood occupy a high place, and during his presentation the Hospital Surgery Manager, Dr. Alejandro Soto, explained to the students, that the Ney Arias Lora Hospital has the capacity to store up to a thousand bags that can to house blood, but despite the efforts made by the medical center, with awareness campaigns and blood collection activities, at present the blood supply does not reach a hundred bags.

The teenagers were reminded that blood is only replenished with blood and that this biological component is not sold, nor can it be manufactured in factories, which means that technological development still does not allow it to be created, in this sense Soto said. that the only way to obtain it is through donation, which would greatly help the Ney Arias Lora Hospital to improve the response capacity when that need arises.

In the activity was expressed the concern that in the country, the population of productive age that ranges between 15 and 45 years dies due to blood loss, because, despite the efforts of relatives, is not replenished on time .

"Young people are the engine of the country and they are dying because of lack of blood," Soto told the audience.

For his part, the lawyer Altagracia Beltre said that humans generally have between five and seven liters of blood throughout the body and that at the time of donation, only one liter is extracted, an amount that is enough to save up to three lives.

"Each time a person donates blood, it stimulates the bone marrow to produce more blood, which is why it indicates that donating does not affect health, while it does help to restore lives," he added.

In addition, he argued that people in good health and whose weight range between 110 and 145 pounds can donate without problems, added that diabetics can also donate, since the condition they suffer is in the pancreas.

Also tattooed people, as long as one year has passed since the tattoo was made.

Blood is important, because it carries oxygen, protein and nutrients. Donating blood is giving life, an act of love and solidarity with society, but if the current scenario continues, the projection would reach a critical point by 2030, since some 40,000 young people will have died if blood donation is not prioritized.

computer translated from: https://www.diariolibre.com/noticia...deficit-de-200-mil-pintas-de-sangre-XD8577123
 

Cdn_Gringo

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Apr 29, 2014
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If "they" can mange mobile driver's license issuing vehicles, maybe mobile blood donor vehicles would help. My experience, people won't travel far to give blood. It needs to be in and out and an incentive such as fruit juice, cookies, donuts upon completion.

If there was a clinic held locally in Sosua, if I knew about it well in-advance I'd probably go and donate. I will not, however, ride my moto out of town to donate nor would I feel inclined to pay for transportation to go donate. I most certainly would not sit and wait much beyond that required to get a haircut.

Monetary payments would probably help but shouldn't be necessary with a good educational media campaign and super easy/convenient collection drives.
 

AlterEgo

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If "they" can mange mobile driver's license issuing vehicles, maybe mobile blood donor vehicles would help. My experience, people won't travel far to give blood. It needs to be in and out and an incentive such as fruit juice, cookies, donuts upon completion.

If there was a clinic held locally in Sosua, if I knew about it well in-advance I'd probably go and donate. I will not, however, ride my moto out of town to donate nor would I feel inclined to pay for transportation to go donate. I most certainly would not sit and wait much beyond that required to get a haircut.

Monetary payments would probably help but shouldn't be necessary with a good educational media campaign and super easy/convenient collection drives.

I don't know about Canada, but in the USA there are many places to donate blood for cash. A quick google: https://firstquarterfinance.com/donate-blood-for-money/

I personally think if it's needed so badly, offering people 500 or 1000 pesos for a pint of blood should have them lining up.
 

mountainannie

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I do not know about other locations but the Red Cross HQs in Sto Dom was set up and running after the earthquake in Haiti and was very clean and fast. I suspect that it would be hard to have a sterile "blood mobile" in the DR but that is obviously what is needed....

I can certainly understand why the beach dwellers are not inclined to travel 2 hrs and wait 2 hrs to make a donation....

One has to pay for blood in the DR - and getting specific types can be very difficult. There was a thread here on DR1 for blood donors - for listing one's type?
 

cobraboy

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I don't know about Canada, but in the USA there are many places to donate blood for cash. A quick google: https://firstquarterfinance.com/donate-blood-for-money/

I personally think if it's needed so badly, offering people 500 or 1000 pesos for a pint of blood should have them lining up.
Mom CB had two pints of blood in the outpatient cancer center @ HOMS a couple of months ago.

I asked the hematologist who administered the blood about the system.

She claimed under Dominican law that no one can sell body organs, and that includes blood. In fact the blood MOM CB got was ridiculously inexpensive: RD$5000 for testing, blood and administration in that high-tech facility.

Back in The Day of being an impoverished college student in the esrly 70's, we used to sell blood or plasma to a local blood bank frequented by grims, hookers, beggars and thieves for gas money to get home for Christmas & Summer.
 

cobraboy

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Jul 24, 2004
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Well that puts on damper on my idea. :)

Someone should change that law if there's that bad of a shortage.
I had a neighbor who became the largest blood/plasma centers in the south. Listening to him, it's a really ugly business because the clientele is rather unsavory...and that is where the centers had to be located.
 

Matilda

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Sep 13, 2006
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Everyone I have ever known who went to a public hospital had to buy blood before an operation at around RD$2500 a pint and the money was not refunded if the blood was not used - the blood was never used. Many operations are delayed due to the inability of the patient to pay for the pints of blood the surgeons say are needed.

Matilda
 

Kipling333

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Jan 12, 2010
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Here we go again with these sweeping generalisations.....many operations are delayed ..I have never heard of payment for blood being the specific reason for delay but I will check this tomorrow in Padre Billini because it is too important not to know if it is correct.
 

Matilda

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Sep 13, 2006
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Here we go again with these sweeping generalisations.....many operations are delayed ..I have never heard of payment for blood being the specific reason for delay but I will check this tomorrow in Padre Billini because it is too important not to know if it is correct.

Depends on your definition of generalisation. I think I have been asked to pay for blood or help towards the payment of it maybe 50 times in the last 17 years. I know of around 100 operations in public hospitals every one of which the person has been asked to pay for blood before hand if they could not obtain it from a family member. I have provided blood on around 8 occasions for Dominican friends prior to operations to save them having to buy it.

Matilda
 

Caonabo

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Everyone I have ever known who went to a public hospital had to buy blood before an operation at around RD$2500 a pint and the money was not refunded if the blood was not used - the blood was never used. Many operations are delayed due to the inability of the patient to pay for the pints of blood the surgeons say are needed.

Matilda

On the other hand, this statement is 100% correct, and equal to every one of my experiences within the RD.
 

Caonabo

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Here we go again with these sweeping generalisations.....many operations are delayed ..I have never heard of payment for blood being the specific reason for delay but I will check this tomorrow in Padre Billini because it is too important not to know if it is correct.

It is not a sweeping generalization. It is a reality within the RD, and has been for a very long time.
 

mountainannie

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story -

i flew down on a medivac chopper with a neighbor/friend from LT who had broken his pelvis in an outer stair collapsing. A Frenchman - he had no sort of insurance. Had I not been there, at the Clinic Abreu - with my AMEX card - they would not have admitted him. But I put down $1500 (promptly repaid by the perps in LT). I stayed over at his friend's B&B and came the next A.M. where they were insisting that I - personally - go in a TAXI - to pick up the Blood.. from a blood bank.

Fortunately - his French friend was there - hollering about the amount of money down.. and I bought some of her courage..
and having learned a thing or two about how to deal with Dominicans I said to the folks at the Blood bank inside Abreu
(it was the eve of Semana Santa - and they were giving me a story about how their books were closed, etc etc etc)

"If the CLINIC ABREU has no more credit with the BLOOD BANK - than they must send an Americana with VERY LITTLE SPANISH (this was all in Spanish so they could tell this was not true) in a PUBLIC TAXI - IN THE HEAT - IN the TRAFFIC - TO PICK up BLOOD - for an EMERGENCY OPERATION??? Well, then.. if that is the situation. I suppose that I must do that. And let that be known among the French community in Las Terrenas/"

BOOM/

everyone somehow got to work on getting that blood....

and my friend - well - he is now in Cambodia.. and when other friends of mine introduced themselves to him - he said
"I would walk on my knees across the dark side of the moon for her."
 

Caonabo

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story -

Several months back a neighbor suffered a broken leg in a motorcycle accident. Following initial treatments, it was determined that the leg was not healing properly and surgery would have to be performed to install a rod. The family took up a collection, because blood had to be purchased prior to the surgery. This was for the blood itself, not for the administration and cost of processing the blood. The clinic would not reserve an operating appointment until the family could guarantee and deliver the blood directly to the clinic. This was in Barahona.
 

ROLLOUT

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Jan 30, 2012
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I would have a serious problem donating blood to a hospital system which then turns around and charges the patient to receive blood. I have been in the position of having to pay for blood for a close friend before they would administer treatment.
What kind of barbarians are these people?
 

Caonabo

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I would have a serious problem donating blood to a hospital system which then turns around and charges the patient to receive blood. I have been in the position of having to pay for blood for a close friend before they would administer treatment.
What kind of barbarians are these people?

Did you pay for the blood, or for the administration and cost of processing the blood?
 

AlterEgo

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I would have a serious problem donating blood to a hospital system which then turns around and charges the patient to receive blood. I have been in the position of having to pay for blood for a close friend before they would administer treatment.
What kind of barbarians are these people?

You're not in Kansas anymore