In a unique move, residents of Cuttack’s satellite city here at Abhinav Bidanasi on Wednesday donated blood exclusively for use of thalassemia patients.
looking at the declining trend of blood donation camps in summer, voluntary organisation SN Mohanty Memorial Helpline has decided to conduct camps every month to collect blood for these patients in this harsh season, informed its secretary Debabrata Sinha.
As part of this move, the first camp of the season was held at Sector 9 of CDA on the day in which 21 units of blood were collected, Sinha informed.
“To make this occasion unique, we had invited a 12-year-old boy Subham Kumar Bhol of Jajpur to inaugurate the camp. Subham was detected thalassemic when he was only five-months-old and now he needs at least two units of blood every month to survive,” Sinha informed.
“Although I don’t face much trouble in arranging blood for my son in rest of the seasons, it becomes troublesome during summer months,” said Subham’s father Biswambar, a pharmacist.
There are nearly 400 thalassemia patients currently under treatment at the SCB Medical College Hospital here, and the blood bank requires around 20 units of blood everyday as these patients need at least one unit of fresh blood every month to survive.