Blood Banks

I have always been interested in blood donation. I have been told that a person can donate blood if he/she weighs over 45 kgs, has haomoglobin level above 12.5 and hasnt donated blood in the last 4 months. I have donated for blood banks owned by institutions like red cross, Usha Mullapudi Cardiac Center, Apollo super speciality Hospitals and some other lesser known ones. I have also donated for Chiranjeevi's blood bank for the only reason that I have always admired him for setting up the blood bank. In a way he has inspired me and many others to donate blood. I have never faced any issue in the last 4 years due to blood donation. However an incident that happened to me recently has angered me.

Usually before collection blood from a volunteer the blood bank official makes sure that the volunteer has the required weight and haemoglobin level. I have always had a healthy level of haemoglobin. So I have always passed the preliminary tests. Recently I got a mail from my company's HR team saying that one of my colleague's relative required O -ve blood for a bypass. I called the concerned person to let him know that I was available for donation. He thanked me and asked me to come over to the hospital at 8.00 am the next day. I asked my husband to accompany me as I feel a little weak after donating blood. The hospital was located in Banjara Hills while I stay in AS Rao Nagar. We started early that day and reached the hospital by 8. I called my boss and informed him that I would be late to work. The hospital that I went to was the Star Hospitals in Banjara Hills. I was taken inside and was given a haemoglobin test. The result of the test was 16. I was surprised. I am healthy but 16 was too difficult to believe. And the official wrote it down as 15.5. I asked him as to why he was writing it down as 15.5 when it showed 16 but he refused to comment. They collected my blood and let me go after giving me some juice. I then called up my family doctor and asked him if 16 is normal. He said its okay to have 16 though its unusual. I got very worried. Fortunately or unfortunately I started running a temperature after 2 days and got laid down with seasonal flu. I however got worried that I could have contacted swine flu and decided to take a test. The result was ofcourse negative but my haemoglobin level was 11.7 which was perfect. Had I known this I would NOT have donated blood as you need to have a minimum level of 12.5 to be able to donate. I felt very bad that the blood bank authorities donot take pains to check the condition of their equipment. They conduct tests and collect blood without worrying about the test results. When people volunteer to donate blood they do so only to help others. I donate blood because my blood group is very rare and I know how difficult it is to find people with this blood group. So I think that the blood banks should make sure that they are credible and should have the sense of responsibility towards individuals. Volunteers should be given the respect that they deserve.