THE LIVES of two critical cancer patients at the Hargreaves Hospital in Mandeville, Manchester, now hang in the balance for want of blood.
Desperate for O positive blood, doctors on Monday night appealed to the Mandeville Regional Hospital's Blood Bank but were told the supply was inadequate. The answer was still the same early Tuesday afternoon.
The Gleaner was told that only four units of blood were available, just enough to save one of them. The other would have to depend on the kindness of strangers.
Claudette Aldred, assistant blood donor organiser at the National Blood Transfusion Service in Kingston, told The Gleaner that the Central Blood Bank was like the fabled old lady who lived in the shoe its cupboards are bare.
"There are no donors and so we are really short. We cannot give to the hospitals," Ms. Aldred lamented, adding that the situation has been made worse by Monday's flare-up of violence between factions in the Denham Town and Hannah Town communities. "With what is happening the tense areas, no one is coming here," she said.
Hospitals islandwide are affected, particularly hospitals in Mandeville, Manchester, and Falmouth, Trelawny, she said.
The Mandeville Regional Hospital reported that there were eight patients who needed two units each of blood type O, two patients in need of type B and six patients who needed blood type A.
Just last month, the Central Blood Bank had cause to celebrate after a blood collection drive, started on April 5 to mark World Health Day, boosted its supply by yielding more than 520 units of all types of blood including the rare O negative.
But "these (rare blood) groups don't stay (in the bank). As they come in they go, but we have a little here to go on," she had said.
Mobile units were dispatched for the drive, which was a collaboration between the Ministry of Health and Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) and was staged at various centres in the Corporate Area and at regional hospitals in rural parishes. Still, more donors are needed, she said.
Late last month also, Minister of Health, John Junor, while attending the official opening of the May Pen Hospital Blood Collection Centre, appealed to members of the public to get in the habit of donating blood.
Minister Junor said Jamaica was in serious need of constant supplies of blood to assist the Blood Bank in responding speedily to emergencies.
During the month of March alone, the island's hospitals had 3,224 cases of blood-related incidents mainly due to accidents and acts of violence. Blood imported from the Cayman Islands helped to meet the demand, for which Jamaica was grateful, he added.
Since the start of this year, the Minister said, the May Pen Hospital had 481 patients needing blood for various reasons and the high rate of trauma cases for May Pen and other high accident areas of the island has placed tremendous strain on the resources of the Central Blood Bank.
