DR DINESH BHURANI IN CONVERSATION WITH ET HEATHWORLD ON BLOOD DONATION MYTHS

Blood donation is a noble and life-saving act. However, many people still shy away from it. This is partly to do with the fear of losing blood and partly because of their ignorance, skewed awareness, and stigmas associated with blood donation.

Some of the common excuses for people to not donate blood include the fear of falling sick after donation due to loss of blood, fear of infected needles, busy schedules, or simply feel that they don’t need to donate as there is enough blood supply. The fact is that blood is always in demand with blood banks and hospitals as human blood for transfusion has a shelf life of around 35 to 42 days and platelets of just 5 days and probably that explains why there is always a deficit in blood units required by medical institutions despite having a donor population of 512 million.

Recently our Advisory,  Dr. Dinesh Bhurani shared his views about common myths pertaining to blood donation that prevail in the society and explained the real truth. Dr. Bhurani explained cleared certain misconceptions that prevent people from coming forward to donate blood. Many people are of the opinion that donating blood causes blood loss in the body and can damage the organs.

Dr Bhurani explained that donating blood is in fact considered healthy for kidney, liver, and lungs. The human body regenerates fresh blood within 120 days of donation. Also, anybody can donate blood and it has nothing to do with height, weight, and lifestyle as long as the donor is healthy and has normal hemoglobin levels. Lastly, he stressed on the fact that it is important to spread awareness about the importance of blood donation in the society so that more and more people, especially the educated youth, can come forward to donate blood. After all, a pint of blood can save up to 3 lives!