BHUBANESWAR: Among the worst sufferers of the raging pandemic are those suffering from blood diseases, who require regular transfusions. While the SOS calls for plasma donors have gone up manifold to save lives of Covid patients, normal blood donation activities have almost come to a standstill leaving people with thalasemia, haemophilia and other critical patients in the lurch.
With the State Capital gripped with an acute blood crisis, two youths have come forward to organise special blood donation camps to help thalasemia and other patients needing transfusion. Niranjan Pattanaik (26), a mechanic at Arundhati Motors and Haraparasad Mohapatra (34), the project manager of UNDP-funded plastic waste management programme in Bhubaneswar, have launched an initiative ‘Mission Raktadan’ to organise in-house blood donation camps at Capital Hospital blood bank.
The blood bank has been reeling under acute shortage since the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year. The duo had organised around 50 camps last year to support the blood bank. They have targeted 100 such camps this year of which 35 are already done.
City youths on mission to overcome blood crisis
“Around 20 to 30 thalasemia patients visit the hospital on a daily basis. Besides, blood is also required for other critical patients everyday. However, the patients are facing a lot of trouble due to the pandemic that has severely affected mega blood donation camps,” said Haraparasad. He said that their blood donation camps, which are mostly in-house (organised within the hospital premises) these days, are helping in dealing with the crisis to some extent.
“We are organising the camps with just 5-10 donors,” said Niranjan. The interesting aspect of these camps is that they are mostly organised to celebrate birthdays, marriage anniversaries and other such special occasions. Many individuals including School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash and State Khadi Board president Sangram Paikray with supporters and friends have joined the initiative and donated blood on their birthdays.
Niranjan said with Odisha having a population of around 4.5 crore, the annual blood requirement is around 4.5 lakh units. However, the State has been failing to meet this target, more so after the outbreak of the pandemic. “Apart from organising mini camps, we have also created WhatsApp groups with around 500 members to arrange donors for critical patients requiring blood in hospitals, including the private ones, in the city,” Niranjan said. The duo said several organisations such as Just Help, National Youth Projects and Lifeline Charitable Trusts are pitching in with monetary support to their initiative.