The Pantang Hospital has successfully held its second voluntary blood donation exercise to stock its newly established blood bank and support the National Blood Service.
The exercise, which attracted a large turnout of volunteers from within and outside the Pantang community, is aimed at addressing critical blood needs for maternity, surgical and general medical services.
“We are having our second voluntary blood donation exercise organized by Pantang Hospital to support our Pantang Hospital Blood Bank and also the National Blood Service.
Pantang Hospital has set up a blood bank and this blood bank has come to serve a critical purpose. We have a maternity unit, we have a theatre that has surgical services, and we have other general medical services apart from the psychiatric services,” Dr. Maalug explained.
He stressed that availability of blood is key to preventing maternal deaths and managing emergencies.
“More often than not, we need blood for some of these procedures. For maternity, some of the causes of maternal mortality is postpartum hemorrhage and antepartum hemorrhage. You need blood sometimes to be able to save a life,” he said.
“When you are doing surgeries, you need blood, and sometimes when you are even sick, you may have a low HB and it is very severe, you need blood to replace the HB that you’ve lost. So this blood donation exercise is very key,” he added.
Dr. Maalug added that the National Blood Service is a partner in the exercise and will retain some of the blood for Pantang Hospital while supporting other facilities that need it.
“The essence of donating blood is that you are going to save a life. National Blood Service is involved. They will give Pantang Hospital some, and they also support other blood banks that need blood. When you donate blood, you become a donor,” he said.
For her part, the Chief Nursing Officer of Pantang Hospital, Maame Abebrese, said the donation is primarily to save the lives of pregnant women, children and accident victims.
“Today is the day, this is the second time we are doing the blood donation. Today we are doing it to favor our pregnant mothers, children, people who have had accidents, have lost blood. Blood saves lives and they need it,” she stated.
“We are appealing to each and every one to come around. It’s not difficult at all. Within a few seconds you are done. So everybody who is hearing us should come and help us so that we can save our pregnant mothers, our babies who need it, and those who have had accidents. Blood saves lives,” Madam Abebrese appealed.
The Unit Committee Chairman for Pantang Electoral Area, Kwame Prosper, who joined the exercise as a community leader, commended residents for their massive turnout and encouraged more people to participate.
“So I will encourage everyone within the electoral area or even outside the electoral area to participate in this fruitful exercise so that we can save lives,” he added.
The hospital management expressed appreciation to all voluntary donors and called on the public to continue to support blood donation campaigns to help save lives and reduce preventable deaths.
By Sampson Kumah Ifeetwube Elvis
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