Giving blood

The need for blood is worldwide. We are all walking blood banks in one sense and out here that is truly more literal. There is no blood storage bank so when blood is needed, the local hospital checks family members for blood matches. If no family members match or if family is unavailable they check their donor list for potential matches and start calling people to see if they can come give blood. I got one such call a few weeks after being put on that list so off I went with a friend to the local hospital to give blood. In my past experience giving blood back in Canada it was a long process of getting a finger prick (to make sure my blood levels where high enough to donate), a long questionnaire, then some sticker thing to put on my bag to indicate if I really did want to give my blood or not, a chat with someone who again reviews if I want/am able to give blood and then I’m off to actually give the blood. Cookies and juice always follow J   Out here the process is somewhat different.  I chatted briefly with the lab tech and told her that I did not have the standard disease for which they are concerned (Hep A,HepB, HIV,AIDs, etc) and she then took a small vial of my blood to test for the above mentioned diseases, checked that I had enough to give,  check my blood type and ensure my blood was compatible with the patient’s. Once this was confirmed she went ahead and started the actual donation process which is pretty much the same as my past experiences. A BIG needle gets jabbed into my arm. This is attached to a tube that connects to a bag which collects my blood. It took about 20 minutes for me to give the blood and once it was done a nurse took the bag and went to give it to the patient. No fridge storage or any transport. Just blood there when you need it.