By Siti Nurain Ratani
KUCHING: The Sarawak General Hospital has called on those who are healthy to donate blood to ensure sufficient supply in its blood bank.
In making the appeal the hospital highlighted a case last week where a 22-year-old female patient diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) was treated with a blood transfusion and blood components.
“SLE or lupus is an autoimmune disease in which the body produces antibodies that attack the body’s own tissues, causing inflammation in many parts of the body such as the skin, joints and internal organs such as the brain, lungs, heart and kidneys.
“With sufficient supply of blood as a result of a blood donation campaign, we pray this patient will show a positive reaction after the treatment,” it said in a statement, thanking everyone who donated blood.
It added that a 55-year-old male patient was also admitted to the hospital because he was suffering from a lot of bleeding in the intestines (Upper GI bleeding).
“Thankfully, the blood donation campaign we organised last week (Saturday and Sunday) was sufficient and this patient’s blood type (A positive) was also sufficient,” it added.
THE SGH blood bank always conducts promotions through social media to ask the public to come forward to donate blood while repeat donors are encouraged to do so every three months.
Continuous blood donation from the public is essential so that blood supply is always sufficient given the short shelf life of blood components, especially platelets.
