reader comment | 30. April 2022
We usually only come into contact with blood if we cut ourselves or injure the skin in some way. Then one, two or more drops of blood appear, which we staunch with cotton wool or kitchen paper, then stick a plaster on it and that’s it. But blood is the medium that determines a person’s life. Pumped by the heart, it reaches the last ramified cells in the body, including the little toe.
There are circumstances that cause the body to have too little blood or lose some and therefore foreign blood has to be introduced into the body. This blood saves lives. But important medicines can also be obtained from blood.
How does foreign blood get into my body. The blood donation service has developed a donation system where volunteers donate blood so that a blood shortage can be bridged. You can donate in many places. More than 80,000 people donate blood more or less regularly each year. In order to supply everyone with donated blood, the blood transfusion centers need around 300 donations per day.
Donating blood 99 times means being willing to do so again and again over the years. My blood donation career began in 1971 at the recruit school in Lucerne. Man to man stood in a single file, bare-chested, waiting to be called. Donating blood for the first time, yes, that was an adventure.
Years passed and the next place to donate blood was at the Postgasshalde in Bern. From there one was called again and again when blood of a certain blood group was needed. Later, the Interlaken hospital was the contact point, where you received five francs per donation. At the same time, the donated blood was replaced with a saline solution.
For many years, the Bern blood donation center was located on Laupenstrasse in Bern and now on Murtenstrasse near the Weyermannshaus bathing establishment.
Before making a donation, you fill out a long questionnaire, and then your blood pressure and hemoglobin levels are measured. After these examinations and a pleasant conversation, everyone can donate. A small Toblerone lies next to the donation bag and comes with you to the donation center, where reclining seats are available. A friendly sister welcomes the donors and asks which side they want to donate to. After the decision, you sit down on the couch and let it move into a horizontal lying position. The empty bag is now on the collection device and the nurse disinfects the site of the prick and whoops, a small prick and the blood runs first into the examination cannula and then into the bag. Relaxed you feel like on the beach. When the machine gives the musical signal, the 0.450 liters of blood are in the bag, the needle is removed, the arm is held up and the puncture site is sealed with a swab. For many years there was a white bandage, later you could choose the colors of the bandage, and today a small round patch is sufficient.
Donated blood 99 times to people who need that blood. But that doesn’t make you a hero, you support the medical work of the hospitals by donating blood. Important medicines are also obtained from it.
Many positive experiences remain from all these years, and it gives a good feeling to have helped a few people with little effort.