A blood bank technician at Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital organises blood donations intended for Frontier Constabulary recruits wounded in a Shabqadar, Charsadda, suicide attack May 13. The hospital, which treats about 70% of the terrorism victims in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas, has seen a dramatic increase in blood donations.
As militants increase attacks on civilians, volunteers are giving more blood to save lives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
“Terrorism has furthered the habit of blood donation among the people,” Dr. Muhammad Jamil, medical officer at Bannu District Headquarters Hospital, said. “We have often been blaming the people for not donating blood even to their near and dear ones during routine operations, but they are readily donating it for victims of terrorist attacks.”
“Believe it or not, we collected 14 pints of blood for only three persons who received injuries in a suicide attack on a police station June 25,” he said.
90% of donors are now volunteers
Before terrorism began ravaging the province in earnest in the last decade, hospitals relied on patients’ friends and relatives to supply almost all the blood. Only 8% of donations came from strangers.
Now, though, the proportion has reversed, said Dr. Hikmat Shah of the Accident and Emergency Department at Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital (LRH): 90% of the blood comes from volunteers who don’t know the patient.
“Blood banks are overflowing now,” he said.
Pakistanis often held the misconception that giving blood would weaken them and expose them to disease, Dr. Noor Akbar, a haematologist at the Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar, told Central Asia Online, but that has changed.
“We receive more than the desired quantity of blood bags whenever there is a bomb attack,” he said.
Jabbar Shah, 45, a Peshawar taxi driver, is one example.
“I went to the hospital to see the victims of the bomb attack on a vehicle in University Town Peshawar, where I saw an old person who had sustained wounds and required blood on emergency basis,” he said. “I ... immediately rushed to the blood bank and pulled my sleeve up.”
It was his first donation, he said.
“Five years ago, I didn’t give blood for my brother who was undergoing a kidney stone operation,” he said. “Now I am a different man and will give blood to the innocent victims of terrorism.”
Muhammad Javid, a student of the University of Peshawar, has a similar story.
“To me, giving blood seemed a great risk, but a suicide attack in January in Dir changed my mind and I donated blood for victims at the District Headquarters Hospital,” he told Central Asia Online. “It is very tragic to see innocent people dying of wounds.”
Javid, 20, is now determined to donate blood every three months.
Doctors at the LRH, which has admitted 13,034 terrorism victims in the past four years, agreed that the widespread public reluctance to donate blood has now disappeared.
“Blood is the basic requirement for bomb victims because more often excessive bleeding leads to death,” said Hikmat. “Patients desperately need blood transfusions.”
The hospital has stockpiled more than 2,100 blood bags for blast victims, all collected from volunteers, he said.
Rh-negative blood urgently needed
One common problem is finding enough Rh-negative blood in a world where suitable donors generally comprise 15% or less of the population.
“I have given my telephone contact to the blood bank staff,” Sajid Ali, a day labourer from Charsadda District, said. “They contact me whenever they need O-negative blood.”
LRH has “211 Rh-negative blood bags … reserved for bomb victims,” Hikmat said.
The need for blood has been a tragic reality for KP ever since terrorists fled from Afghanistan, and took refuge in the nearby Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
“Since 2005, about 19,000 people (in KP) have received injuries in terrorism-related incidents; the majority of them required blood,” said KP Director of Health Dr Muhammad Ali. “Blood is the only thing that is not available in the market because it cannot be manufactured.”
The surge in public willingness to donate blood is a “very encouraging sign that the people have realised the problems of the victims and are playing the role of life-savers,” he said.
“Terrorism has (dispelled) the people’s misconceptions about blood donation,” he continued. “The majority of poor people now argue that they should give blood ... because they cannot (afford to) give money or extend any other support.”
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