wanted: your organs and your blood

i am a proud organ donor.… since 4 years ago. see my donor card? (i had signed up with the national kidney foundation). unfortunately i had lost the card when i lost my purse to a pickpocket. there’s nothing now to tell that i am an organ donor so i guess i should re-apply and make sure i have a donor card in my purse so that in case anything happened to me, at once, the docs can dig out all my organs.

due to the much publicised case of hui yi getting a new heart, it seemed that there was a wave of people lining up to donate organs. good, good. everyone should pledge to donate their organs. i always feel that when i die, why let my organs go to waste when the organs could be used to save lives.

apart from organs donation, there’s something else you can donate – while you are alive. blood. it’s distressing to read that the national blood bank is sending out SOS to appeal to people to come forward to donate blood as its blood supply level is critically low. while many people consider it is their right to receive blood when they need it, yet they don’t so much consider donating blood to help others.

as i so readily don’t mind donate my organs, for sure i would love to donate blood too… but unfortunately i can’t. so disappointed. i found that out a few months ago when one of my ex colleague’s sister need blood urgently. a few of us (me and my colleagues) decided to donate our blood. we went to the hospital and first they took sample of our blood. after taking my blood, the staff suddenly said that i cannot donate because "you only have enough blood for yourself. you can’t donate."

what did he meant by that? i suppose it meant i’m not healthy enough to donate blood. i don’t have ‘surplus’ blood to donate. what a pity. what a disappointment. actually i should have known this for a fact because you see, long ago, when i went to see the doctors for some ailments, 2 of them did mentioned i don’t have enough blood. one also mentioned i have lack of iron. oh dear me, so what should i do/take to increase blood supply? iron tablets? hey, maybe instead of me donating blood, i might be wanting blood – so you guys out there please donate ok… who knows, it might be me who you save. 🙂

ok back to this serious business of donating organs and blood, some useful information here.

ORGAN DONATION
for more information, please contact the national transplant resource centre at tel. 03-26942704/2705 or the following individual centres:
* ipoh hospital (05-522324/2533333 at ext. 2324)
* penang hospital (04-2002436/2293333 at ext. 435)
* johor hospital, sultanah aminah hospital (07-2231666 at ext. 2751)
the national toll free number is 1-800-88-9060

BLOOD DONATION
national blood bank (located at jalan tun razak, next to national library) is closed on hari raya which falls on the weekend of oct 13 and 14.  reopens on oct 15 from 7.30 am to 4.00 pm, oct16 & 17 from 7.30am – 5.30 pm and oct 18 from 7.30 am to 8.00 pm.
contact no.:  03-26933888

for those in other towns, like penang, ipoh, i suppose you can contact the general hospitals. at the moment though, according to the bernama report, the other places that are running short of blood are alor setar, perlis, ipoh and johor baru.