I Give Life, It’s in My Blood

Today’s post is about the NGO (non-governmental organization) which has everyone signing up, the AUB Red Cross on high alert, and countless people direly in need getting the help that one year ago would have been practically unattainable (except with exceptional luck and maybe some good insurance)

For those of you who did not already guess, the NGO I’m talking about is Donner Sang Compter (DSC). Founded by LAU Pharmacy student Yorgi Teyrouz, (Yorgi without a u frenchies)

DSC is a key player in an issue which has been plaguing Lebanon for many years now. DSC acts as a link between healthy donors, and patients in need of blood. Despite the basic and obvious necessity of such an organization, the existing institutions that deal with this issue had serious shortcomings. At this point, I would like to salute the Lebanese Red Cross and their blood bank, which has and continues to save lives of thousands of people each year, and makes sure Lebanon has enough blood to keep it going, God-forbid any disaster may befall us.

It is the bureaucracy and liability barriers that hinder the life-saving 500ml bag from getting into the veins of a patient. Often, large private hospitals do not share their units of blood with lesser hospitals for fears of liability and legal issues should the blood being transferred cause adverse reactions. Therefore, the unlucky automobile crash victim in small hospital X will most probably not get the ‘life in a bag’ from the richer, bigger hospital Y…

This is where DSC jumps in. DSC is not a blood bank, we do not extract the blood ourselves and we do not have refrigerators where we store the blood in. We get a call from someone in need and we get the blood type and the necessary details too. The next step is simply getting in contact with our generous donors in the area (to minimize the hassle and disturbance to their daily life), more specifically, those who have not given blood in at least 3-months and fulfill the necessary criteria to ensure their safety and the safety of the patients.  With that, a total of 2 calls, maybe 3, a donor can save someone’s life.

Today, Donner Sang Compter now boasts over 11,000 donors and supporter, in addition to dozens of dedicated volunteers. Even though the DSC started off with devoted scouts members, it has grown exponentially to include young, healthy people from all over Lebanon and even a handful of international donors who currently reside in Lebanon. This has attracted a lot of attention of course from many important people and institutions, with DSC winning several awards for excellence, pioneering, and charity work. Most prominent of which was the King Hussein Abdullah Award for distinguished youths (is that it’s name? =P, sorry Yorgi)

The fact that DSC exists is one that brings hope to so many… But it is also very sad… The fact that so many of us must volunteer so that people do not die of blood loss, while the government and other institutions sit, arms-crossed, is sad. In fact, the signs are beginning to appear, for the man behind it all, and many others of course, need to struggle to balance DSC, university, social life, and other things such as scouts. And despite the fact that with the support of people, their generosity, and plain-old good hearts, with no official backing or legislation there are many obstacles to tackle. One thing we can do, or rather two things, is help DSC and continue its work vigorously, in the hope one day we will realize the goal of a centralized blood bank in Lebanon which has a fair blood distribution policy that can cover anyone, anywhere…

To find out how you can help, to join, or to get more info on DSC, please visit http://www.donnersangcompter.org/

For a fun game concerning Blood Typing (which isn’t as easy as it seems) go to: http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/landsteiner/landsteiner.html