KEM's blood donation drive a success thanks to doctors' WhatsApp campaign

MARD held the blood donation drive on Thursday

A WhatsApp campaign by resident doctors has come in as a shot in the arm for KEM hospital, which has been facing an acute shortage of blood. The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) helped the hospital collect more than 40 units of blood in a day from fellow doctors and students after spreading the word for it on the messaging app.

Lokesh Shende, doctor and blood donor

KEM has been facing the shortage since Monday. On Thursday, MARD began circulating a plea message on WhatsApp asking for blood. Within a day of sending out that message, the hospital received more than 40 units of blood. Sadly, it continues to face the heat, as it needs 150-200 units of blood every day.

Calling all docs
"The hospital would do blood camps at several places to get the required amount of blood but they needed time," said Dr. Rajesh Katare, secretary MARD, "We found out on Wednesday night that there is no blood left in the blood bank. We had to take out a day for it because the blood camps were going to happen the next day. Hence, we requested all resident doctors through WhatsApp to donate blood." Till the time of going to press, the doctors donated 47 units of blood.

MARD's message requested residents, interns, under graduate students and faculty to participate in the blood donation drive, held on Thursday. Following this, the resident doctors and under-graduate students residing in the campus came forward to donate blood. Lokesh Shende, 28, a resident doctor from the department of anaesthesia was one of the donors. "Being a doctor, I can understand the need for blood. So whenever I get to know about any such crisis, I generally donate blood. Blood can't be manufactured in any factory, so people need to come forward and donate," he said.

Hospital says
When mid-day spoke to the hospital authorities, they said there is no stock since Monday. "Generally, the crisis comes during longer holidays, like in April or December. But we ensured that the patients got blood from other banks," said Dr Avinash Supe, KEM dean. Dr Jayashree Sharma, head of the department of haematology at KEM said there is a crisis among certain blood groups, but denied any shortage.

47
No. of units of blood KEM received on account of the drive

200
Maximum units of blood KEM needs every day

In December 2015, a survey revealed that blood banks of eight major BMC hospitals are functioning with a massive staff shortage.

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