NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 13 – Blood donation is an exercise that many may take lightly; but for its recipients, it is the one thing that draws a line between life and death.
One early morning of August 2007, Lawrence experienced something strange. At that time he was living with his grandfather in Machakos.
“I was hurrying to go fetch water so that I prepare for school. It took me about one hour to go to the river. My grandfather was very tough and when I went back home he questioned me why I had taken so long. I explained to him that I was not feeling well and even showed him how I was sweating but he dismissed me as lazy and said I had poured water on myself,” he remembers.
The next morning, Lawrence called his mother who lived in Nairobi. After explaining his condition, she came and took him to a hospital in Machakos. After tests he was diagnosed with anaemia, and that his blood count was also low.
He was then brought to two other hospitals in Nairobi where he was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia, a condition in which the bone marrow fails to produce blood cells. This meant that he had to immediately undergo blood transfusion.
And for the last five years, Lawrence’s life has depended on monthly blood transfusions, an exercise he describes as painful.
“I have to be injected every time and the more I am injected, my veins collapse,” Lawrence explains.
“Sometimes before a doctor gets one of my veins; they can prick me like ten times and when they start running the blood, it can run like for one hour and then it stops. When this happens they use some liquids to flush it out and the more they flush the more the vein pains,” he goes on to say.
Doctors say he needs to undergo a bone marrow transplant as the ultimate solution but it is too expensive for him. It would cost him about Sh5 million and it is not done here in Kenya.
Some of the things we term as simple daily tasks are a nightmare for Lawrence.
“I can’t brush my teeth. The top ones I can but the bottom ones I can’t because I may start bleeding and I can bleed for the whole day and night and I am so sure if that happens I will die. I am still young, I don’t want to die!” he says.
Unfortunately, getting willing blood donors in the country is a challenge. Only an estimated 160,000 people voluntarily donate blood annually.
Dr Margaret Oduor, Director National Blood Transfusion Services says this is hardly enough to meet the demand.
“Let us look at human blood as medicine or as drugs for certain medical conditions and it is only through giving blood or blood products that the doctors are able to save lives of these Kenyans,” she urges.
Religious beliefs, myths and misconceptions are some of the reasons why people don’t donate blood.
Meshak, for example, is a Jehovah witness. In his religion, he can neither donate nor receive blood because according to them it is against the Bible. Jehovah Witness worshippers carry a card indicating that the person should not be given blood even in an emergency.
“The first thing written on the card is No blood! Then there is a description of what we cannot receive like white blood cells, red blood cells, blood plasma, platelets and others. We can only give blood for medical tests,” Meshak explains.
Harun, who is an Akorino follower, has the same belief. However, this is slowly changing.
“Previously we would not even go to hospital but we now are and we are also giving and receiving blood. But there are still some people in our religion who believe it is wrong,” he says.
Blood is essential to carry oxygen throughout the body and fight infections.
Dr Rex Mpazanje of the World Health Organisation says there is no artificial preparation that can replicate some of the functions of blood.
“The only artificial products that exist are plasma expanders which only replace the volume and fool the body that the volume of blood is still the same while it manufactures its own blood. Technology has gone on to perfect that but still you need blood to replace that,” he says.
And as the world marks blood donor day on Tuesday, the 14th of this month it is important for all of us to remember that, that one pint of blood you donate could save a life.
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