UV students donate blood

CEBU, Philippines - Students and faculty from the University of the Visayas Main Campus donated blood in Smart Communications’ bloodletting campaign yesterday in celebration of Manny V. Pangilinan’s birthday last July 14.

Smart and UV’s bloodletting campaign was conducted in cooperation with the Philippine National Red Cross at the UV Main Campus.

Smart started the campaign four years ago and continued it in fulfilling their corporate social responsibility, “Kabalikat sa Kaligtasan”.

Public Affairs Group Visayas Mindanao Supervisor Nn Navarro said that they like to work with UV because of the very good response from the students and they accumulate many donors from the school including the faculty.

Smart aimed to get 200 donors in one day including the walk-ins who could qualify in the blood donation examination.

Throughout the day, around 70 people donated and more than 30 were deferred. Red Cross volunteer Krizia Marzado said majority of the donors are males.

Sheryl Fuentes, Blood Donor Requirement Officer, Nurse, Phlebotomist said, “Donor bleeding is low, and the demand is very high. The blood for medical use is still insufficient for the demand in the city. People have not realized the use of blood. They just realize it by the time they need it,” she added.

Fuentes encouraged everyone to make blood donation a part of healthy living and urged the schools, companies and the religious sector to support the campaign as part of the social community responsibility in order to have an adequate blood supply.

 PNRC is now strict with donors and have guidelines to follow before donating blood to secure that the donor is healthy and qualified. The habits and medical history of the donors are also checked.

According to PNRC guidelines, a donor is required to weigh 110 lbs or 50 kg above and must be 18 – 65 years old. Those who are below 18 must have parent’s consent. The weight, blood pressure, pulse rate and hemoglobin count are checked in order to see that they qualify to donate.

Donors must have at least 6 hours of sleep and must not come with an empty stomach. Donors are also not allowed to consume alcoholic beverages at least 10 -12 hours prior to the blood donation.

After donation, he must drink lots of liquids, whether juice or water, to replenish the volume of blood which was donated. The blood volume is replenished 24 – 48 hours after donation.

Fuentes explained that blood donation makes a person young and healthy. It delays ageing because every time a person donates blood, the bone marrow produces new red blood cells.

“It is just like a change of oil in a car and the car functions better after the change of oil,” Fuentes said and added that a healthy person can donate blood after every 3 months without ill effects.

The blood donated will be screened for hepatitis B and C, HIV, Malaria and Syphilis. If the donor has a problem with the blood donated, PNRC will inform him in a confidential manner by sending him a letter and referring him to PNRC for closure.

A person who went through surgery can donate after a year.

Dr. Amour Cielo Cantillas, Blood Center Manager, said there is an increasing number of people who are aware of the true sense of blood donation which is not expecting anything in return. Cantillas said holding a card doesn’t mean that a person is given priority and is just for record purposes.

Cantillas said that countrywide, there are 60 percent voluntary blood donors.

The blood donated is only for Cebu since there is an insufficient supply of blood here.

The whole packed red blood cells will last until 35 days, while the platelet lasts only 5 days which could be given to dengue patients.

Cantillas said the PNRC is just the bridge towards the donor and the recipient. If one member of the community needs blood, it’s the community who should donate blood and PNRC would just be there to assist the blood donated if it is safe or not.

PNRC will reward those persons whom they call, “Blood Galloners” who has donated 9 times.

On July 30, PNRC will give awards to recognize 23 companies and 40 blood galloners since July is “Blood Donor’s Month”.

The UV main campus is one of the awardees along with the Philippine National Police, Regional Training School under Police Supt. Urbano, LEAR PETC, 3rd Army Training Group, Lexmark Research, Accenture Inc. Gaisano Pacific Mall, Mandaue Chamber of Commerce, SM Multi Store and Metro Ayala Stores.  (FREEMAN)