Celebrating heroes on World Blood Donor Day

ANUSHA GURUNG 
GANGTOK, 14 June: Sikkim State Blood Transfusion Council [SSBTC] celebrated “World Blood Donor Day” today at STNM Hospital with events to raise awareness on the need for safe blood and to thank voluntary blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.
The theme of the 2012 World Blood Donor Day campaign was “Every blood donor is a hero” which focuses on the idea that each one of us can become a hero by giving blood. While recognizing the silent and unsung heroes who save lives every day through their blood donations, the theme also strongly encourages more people all over the state to donate blood voluntarily and regularly.
Jeena Gurung [43] from the Energy and Power Department, Gangtok was the first donor of the day who expressed, “Donating blood is a beautiful gift, so donate blood and save life. Join the life saving movement of voluntary blood donation and at least donate blood on some auspicious occasion of your life like a birthday, marriage anniversary, etc. One unit of your blood can save many lives”.
Senior Blood Bank Officer, Dr. Chinta Mani Sharma, speaking to media persons conveyed a warm and hearty thanks for the voluntary blood donors on the occasion of World Blood Donor Day and also informed that the requirement of blood at STNM per year is about 1200 unit to 1500 unit which is very low as compared to other state hospitals.
“We have three licensed blood banks in Sikkim which are Manipal, Namchi District Hospital and Blood Bank STNM. The total requirement of blood across the state is about 400 units”, he informed.
He also listed out the names of those with the highest number of blood donations. Dr. Dhakal [42 times], Suren Mohra [36 times], Senior Research Officer Forest, Enviroment and Wildlife Management, Usha Lachungpa [more than 50 times] and Sunita Julkha [50 times] were some of the names cited. “They are the regular blood donors who are always encouraging more people from all over the state”, mentioned Dr Sharma.
The birthday anniversary of Dr. Karl Landsteiner a Noble Prize winner was also celebrated on the day. Dr Landsteiner has made numerous contributions to pathological anatomy, histology and immunology, all of which showed, not only his meticulous care in observation and description, but also his biological understanding.
He is most well known for his outstanding work on, the blood groups, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1930. To the end of his life, Landsteiner continued to investigate blood groups and the chemistry of antigens, antibodies and other immunological factors that occur in the blood. It was one of his great merits that he introduced chemistry into the service of serology. On June 24, 1943 he had a heart attack in his laboratory and died two days later in the hospital of the Institute in which he had done such distinguished work.