Doctors at the hospital said the condition of the patient is critical and needs two pints of fresh B positive blood immediately for surgery. [break]
Ale reached the Central Blood Transfusion Service (CBTS), popularly known as blood bank, but the employees there asked her to find donors on her own. They told her that the bank does not have matching blood group in its stock.
“I told them about the condition of my aunt but they turned down my request saying everyone visiting the bank have an emergency situation,” she complained. Ale is worried about the health of her pregnant aunt and her unborn baby.
Christina Baral of Pokhara, whose father is critically ill and admitted to Sahid Gangalal Heart Center (SGHC), said she has been making rounds of the bank for last two weeks. She said her father, who recently had valve replacement surgery, has blood infection and needs blood transfusion every day. “The bank provides me only two pints though I need 34 pints of blood,” she said. She has pleaded prospective donors with matching blood group to donate blood to save her father.
Like Ale and Baral, hundreds of critically ill patients in various hospitals in the capital have been suffering due to acute scarcity of blood in the blood bank. The bank, however, has been asking patients to find prospective blood donors on their own.
Employees at the bank said the bank has been facing acute shortage of blood as blood donation camps have declined over the last few weeks due to Dashain and Tihar festivals and the upcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) elections.
“Due to major festivals and the upcoming CA election, blood donations have declined drastically,” said Sobha Bista, Public Relation Officer at CBTS, adding several scheduled blood donation programs have been postponed due to the upcoming CA election. She said blood donation camps should be held to deal with the crisis.
Bista admitted that the bank has been facing intense pressure from the relatives of the patients. She said the bank on Friday organized emergency blood donation camp in Ason of Kathmandu.
“We have been urging political parties and the social organizations to organize blood donation programs,” she said. The bank has requested political parties to organize blood donation camps but to no avail. Bista also informed that the bank has sought help of the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) to deal with the crisis.
At the request of MoHP, big hospitals have been organizing donation campaigns but that too have not been effective. The blood bank said there is a demand for over 400 pints of blood a day whereas it hardly collects 50 pints.
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