Blood Giving

Every semester in the IMU, a blood donation is conducted. For those who are able, it is not at the optimum frequency; as blood can be donated once every three months, one would have to “source” for a blood donation drive to join in between donations at IMU.

That being said, most people would take up the option to donate blood if given a chance.

I know I would.

For the longest time, I had wanted to donate blood. However, we can’t give away pieces of our body until we are legally able to do so. As only majors can do so, different legislative jurisdictions have different regulations on the giving away of bits and pieces of your body.

In Malaysia, for example, one is only eligible to donate blood after the age of 17, not inclusive of 17 years of age. Other legislative jurisdictions have different age limits. Some limit it to those above 16, others to those who have been given permission by their legal guardians for those 16 years of age with various restrictions in different countries.

So when the blood donation campaign came to IMU, I wanted to donate my blood. Everyone around me was talking about donating blood, about how many times they’ve donated or about how this would be their first time donating. But I knew better.

The last I heard, most of my family can’t donate blood. I found that for the lamest of lame reasons (which I will not go into here), I couldn’t do so.

But just to be sure, I checked out the blood bank’s website for their guidelines. And to my utter “amazement”, the guidelines for our Malaysian blood bank were hard to find.

So I decided to go round to other blood banks and see what their regulations were like. After going through most of the developed world, I came to the conclusion that the only countries that would want my blood are countries I would not likely visit, or countries which had endemic problems, and similar concerns.

Then I decided to go back to the Malaysian blood bank website. If I’m going to make a case to not donate my blood, it better be solid. Otherwise, certain people (especially those who donate blood) will be breathing down my neck in an attempt to get me to donate my blood.

So I combed the website thoroughly this time round. And after a brief search, I found the guidelines for donating blood.

This time, however, I found exactly what I was (or was not) looking for.

Excellent. I am now legally obliged to not donate blood.

Which left me swearing up, down, left, right and centre.

Blood consists of a variety of substances. Apart from red and white blood cells, as well as platelets, blood also has plasma. In the plasma, there is water, nutrients, waste products and building blocks for the body. One of the major building blocks for the body is protein.

After the vCJD scare in the UK in the 1990s, there was a blanket ban on people who had lived in the UK from donating blood. However, a few years after the scares subsided, the bans were revoked, for most people who would have been affected would have already had developed the disease. Recently, however, a number of people who received blood transfusions from people who had vCJD developed the disease and subsequently died.

vCJD is caused by abnormally folded proteins in the brain. As there are proteins in the blood, it would not be impossible for these proteins in the brain to be transmitted from person to person via blood. While transmission is possible, penetration is not; not everyone who received a blood transfusion from someone who eventually developed vCJD eventually developed vCJD, but the risk is still there.

Nevertheless, to prevent the general public from being exposed to vCJD, most blood banks now bar people who might have the slightest inkling of developing vCJD from donating.

Including your truly.

To be sure, I took a look at the form which was distributed to potential blood donors before they donated blood, and right at the back, there was a declaration one had to make. Looks like they really are serious. While other countries are more interested in whether you are healthy or not, we are more serious about a degenerative brain disease.

That was the final nail in the coffin.

In any case, I can’t donate blood. I’m not too sure whether I can donate my organs, either. As there is no effective treatment for vCJD and no definitive test for vCJD, it would probably be this way for the rest of my lifespan.

Despite the many proclamations about blood donation, and about it being the gift of life, many still refuse to donate blood. Only one guy from the people I was oriented with donated blood; the rest were girls. Sure, some of the guys had airtight reasons for not doing so; three of us are legally obliged to not donate blood, while one had a basketball match the next day.

But there were still two more guys who could, and refused, for goodness knows what reason.

The complete irony is this. Of those who are able to donate blood, no one wishes to donate blood for lame reasons; fear being the primary one. I mean, “The girls are donating blood you chickens!!” (other words I would normally use are inappropriate to be displayed here). Do you think you’re the only one who is scared?! At least you have a choice about whether you want to donate your blood or not!?

The second half (which is even more ironical) is that of those who can’t donate blood, all would have been more than willing to part with half a litre of intravascular fluid. Nevertheless, they couldn’t.

With all that’s said and done, if you are eligible to donate blood, I would encourage you to donate blood. The blood bank is perpetually short of blood, and not everyone can donate (including yours truly).

If you can’t and you do, I would like to know how you pulled that off, though I would also like to know whether you put someone else at risk for doing something virtuous.

If you can and you do, keep it up! At least you’re doing something.

If you can’t and you won’t, then start hounding your friends who can. I don’t know any good methods, but I;m going to come up with some ideas over the holidyas.

If you can but you don’t… I’ll be after your blood.

*Laughs evilly*