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Journalism of Courage
LUDHIANA, January 28: Call it ignorance or negligence, hundreds of under-age students, both boys and girls, have been made to donate blood in many parts of the district for the last many years.
According to investigations by an ENS team, a number of students have been seen complaining of giddiness etc soon after having donated blood, the phenomenon which the officials term it as `nothing serious’ but a `psychological factor’.
The latest in the series of blood donation camps being organised from time to time by the directorate of youth services in association with the district Red Cross Society, was the one set up at the Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Bharat Nagar, where initially 233 students were `mobilised’ and registered for donating blood on January 17 last.
Though many of them were turned back by in-charge of the regional blood bank Dr G P Mangla for their being underage and not maintaining good health. At least 100 units of blood were donated by the plus one and plus two students of 15local schools, The students were in the age-group of 16 to 18 years.
According to the blood donation norms,“any adult, having good health and without having been recently affected by any serious illness is a suitable donor”. Adult, in the legal terms, is anybody, who has completed 18 years of age.” Medical experts here observed that donating of blood by the underage or minor people could retard their growth. “Children at this growing age of 15 to 18 years need more and more calories and nutritious food”, said a senior government medical expert.
Hitesh Kumar and Brij Bhushan (both 16 plus students), who donated blood at the camp, when contacted, showed their ignorance about the minimum age for donating blood.
It took a couple of days for the ENS team to get the correct version about the minimum age requirement for a blood donor as none of the officials here was sure about it. However, the civil surgeon and regional blood bank in-charge were of the opinion that a donor should have attainedadulthood.
Finally, the authoritative books on the subject came to the rescue, though Gradwohl’s clinical laboratory methods and diagnosis book has described the minimum age of a blood donor to be 17 years, It further clarified, “it is also important to note that the donor has attained the age of legal consent”. The book also advocated the need for parental consent for those fulfilling the minimum age norms.
