Ahead of donation day,city blood banks run dry

According to Dr Sanjay Jadhav,director,Maharashtra State Blood Transfusion Council (MSBTC),“Given that Mumbai alone needs 3,500 bottles of blood a day. So that (the 25,000 bottles) barely lasted the entire state a week.”

Thus,where most inventories boast of supply outnumbering demand through the year,patients who need blood in this ‘lean period’ are facing problems. 28-year-old Gaurav Shah had to run from pillar to post to procure blood for his sister. “There had been a large amount of blood loss,since it was an accident case. But we never imagined a hospital would be short of B+ blood,h he said. Bhupathi Srinivasan had faced a similar problem during his wife’s delivery late last month. “They couldn’t arrange for AB+ in 3 hours. I went frantic calling up friends and relatives,till I finally found a donor,” he recounted.

Several banks confirmed there was a dearth of even common blood types. Dr K Sengupta,blood bank officer at Nanavati Hospital in Vile Parle,said,“Negatives are a problem round the year. But during April-May we face a crunch for nearly all groups. B+ and AB+ have been a problem for us in the last week,” he said. Kesinath Bhagat,an officer at the Breach Candy Hospital’s blood bank,said they too ran severely short of B+ blood last week. “One patient bled a lot in surgery. We did not have enough stock to replenish the blood loss. Red Cross helped us in the crisis,” he said.