Blood, sweat and tears

They say life and death is in the hands of God. But sometimes the delicate thread of fate suddenly lands in the hands of distraught family members, who barely have minutes to find, match and trade a few bags of blood in return for the irreplaceable lives of their loved ones.

In a heart-wrenching scene outside a government hospital in Peshawar, Rakhshinda Bibi, an elderly woman, was seen pleading passersby for blood donations for her 10-year-old son suffering from thalassemia. Highlighting the gravity of her situation, Rakhshinda tearfully shared that she was left with no other option. “After facing repeated rejections and delays at both private and public hospitals, I have no choice but to beg random strangers to help save my son’s life,” she cried.

Rakshinda’s pain is deeply felt by millions of families across the country, who in the absence of adequate blood banks and state-initiated blood drives, have to put their blood, sweat and tears into urgently arranging blood for their loved ones. One such mother was Shumaila from Lahore who was struggling to find O negative blood, the rarest kind, for her sick son. “When I brought my son to the emergency, I faced a lot of difficulties since the blood bank of the hospital was vacant,” shared Shumaila.

Down south in Karachi, Gulfam, brother of a patient, faced a similar predicament, when he was unable to find blood for his brother’s transfusion at the New Karachi Hospital. “My brother’s haemoglobin was very low and the doctors asked me to arrange three bottles of blood. Since there was no blood bank in the hospital, I went to a private blood bank to buy blood,” revealed Gulfam, who complained about the shortage of blood at government hospitals.

The donation crisis

As per sources from the Health Department, almost 2.5 to 3.0 million blood donations are required across the country each year to meet the requirements of patients suffering from blood loss following surgery, childbirth, accidents or those with thalassemia.

There are 191 blood banks registered in private and government hospitals across Sindh, including Karachi, of which 80 per cen