During the month of Ramadan, our Muslim brother will not be able to donate blood due to fasting. The blood bank is running critically low while the upcoming holiday will tax the blood bank further with high road accidents. It’s time to donate blood.
I was introduced to blood donation by my then 22-year old son. After completing his first degree in Ohio, he continued graduate studies in Applied Maths in Duke but gave up the scholarship and return to Malaysia immediately after 9-11. Sigh. Having donated blood for past 4 years, he became an evangelist for blood and organ donation as a way to give back to society.
Once in three month, the father and son team will go to our national blood bank in Saturday morning to donate blood. I only go once in 3 months but as apheresis donor, he goes there every alternate week.
The American has list of top 10 reasons to give blood (http://www.givelife.org)
10 You will get free juice and cookies.
9 You will weigh less — one pint less when you leave than when you came in.
8 It’s easy and convenient — it only takes about an hour and you can make the donation at a donor center, or at one of the many Red Cross mobile blood drives.
7 It’s something you can spare — most people have blood to spare… yet, there is still not enough to go around.
6 Nobody can ask you to do any heavy lifting as long as you have the bandage on. You can wear it for as long as you like. It’s your badge of honor.
5 You will walk a little taller afterwards — you will feel good about yourself.
4 You will be helping to ensure that blood is there when you or someone close to you may need it. Most people don’t think they’ll ever need blood, but many do.
3 It’s something you can do on equal footing with the rich and famous — blood is something money can’t buy. Only something one person can give to another.
2 You will be someone’s hero — you may give a newborn, a child, a mother or a father, a brother, or a sister another chance at life. In fact, you may help save up to three lives with just one donation.
1 It’s the right thing to do.
But these are not good enough reasons to get some of friends to roll up their sleeves. My addition to the list is
11) If you believe that we are destined to meet accidents or illness several times in the span of our life and end up getting cuts, loosing blood, undergoing surgery, etc, it may be good to “program” the suffering through blood donation. A group of friends were in hospital visiting a friend who was down with bacteria infections a few days ago. The patient need to be in hospital for 6 weeks and will get daily dosage of medication through blood infusion. Showing me his hands and legs, he said that doctor has problems locating veins to inject the medications. I took this opportunity to sell my views on blood donation as a means to avoid misfortune.
Time for a happy little suffering this Saturday.
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