The author, Rafat Salami, donating blood
He sounded drowsy when I called him. He apparently was still in bed, even though it was about 10 a.m on Sunday.
“Hello Sir,” I bellowed, trying to camouflage the wave of panic and anxiety in my head, as I asked if he would be willing to donate a pint of blood, as his wife had told me he was ‘O negative’, which was the blood group we required to save the life of a 2-week old baby.
When my friend Tayo had called me earlier, in response to my post on our Alumni WhatsApp platform, that I needed someone with that blood type. She told me her husband, Mr. Issa Iyortim belonged that group, which though, not the rarest blood group, is still very scarce here.
With a blood donation system not performing at optimal level, some blood groups appear rare. So when it is an O negative (O-), then the scarcity is seems more than triple.
I heaved a huge sigh of relief when he said he was already due to donate; he was in town (Abuja) and would donate.
How did we get here?
I got a call from Nsikak. It is not the call I wanted to get, not after I had my day all scheduled meticulously, appointments booked, and I was ready to get going.
At the first ring, I picked his call, as any call from him was one of my priority list of calls to pick. He was a staff of our Union, our only administrative staff, so any call from him must be important.
More so, he lost his wife just a week before he called me. I had been concerned about his well being after the loss of his wife. By the way, his wife of five years died a week after she was safely delivered of their first child.
Delivering her first child after nearly 5 years of marriage in Nigeria came with a special joy, as we, neighbors, colleagues, family members, church members, choir members, just anyone who knew them, had been asking why she had not had a child yet.
They were both young, and as it is with us, we were eagerly expecting to be told she had ‘put to bed’.
So, when he announced via his Facebook page that his wife had been delivered of a bouncing baby boy, I screamed for joy. She was discharged within 24 hours and I headed to his house in Mpape, a district of Abuja, to share in the joy of the arrival of a new born baby.
Babies know how to lighten up even the most tense situation. The ecstatic new mother was full of smiles as she welcomed me to their home. We hugged and lingered a little, as I congratulated her and welcomed her to motherhood.
The baby was immediately deposited into my stretched arms. “Very handsome and healthy baby”, I quipped. I offered a few prayers for the newborn and the entire family. Then I asked when they would be coming to my house. I wanted to do Omugwo (a term in Igbo culture used to describe when mothers of either the husband or wife go to the house to help out with a new born baby over a period of time).
Trust me, we all look forward to it, but I felt I would do it better if I moved them to my house. They laughed, apparently not believing me. Then I wore my serious look and told them I wanted them in my house for at least one week.
The new father understood me and he acquiesced. His beautiful wife then took a cue from her husband and also agreed to be in my house.
Before I left, I reminded them that I was not joking and I meant it and they were to give me a date immediately after the baby was named so I could pick them all up.
We, then agreed, that after the baby’s naming ceremony on Monday, which was in about 5 days, we would move them to my house.
With that, I departed. I was generously served with chilled bottles of drinks and snacks but more importantly, with warmth and love. I also posted to Facebook to announce that I was heading for Omugwo!
Sadly, I was caught up with office work and could not attend the naming ceremony on Monday. So I sat in the office monitoring his Facebook page, waiting to see him upload pictures from the naming ceremony.
It was supposed to be very well attended because he is an elder in the church and belongs to many committees.
The call
By the time I closed from work, there was nothing on his Facebook page. I excused it because, he might have been too busy entertaining guests, so may not have had time to post on Facebook.
At 6 a.m on Tuesday, I got a call. I cannot remember who it was, but person said: “ The woman died just as the baby was to be named.”
I was confused.
How could she have died suddenly? I was later informed by our staff that she had complained of shortness of breath and had passed out. By the time, they got to the hospital, she was said to have been brought in dead.
Let’s not dwell on the emotions, but it suffices to mention that Nsikak’s wife adds to the sad statistics of maternal mortality in Nigeria.
According to UNICEF, a woman’s chance of dying from pregnancy and childbirth in Nigeria is 1 in 13. And in 2015, mortality ratio for Nigeria was 814 deaths per 100,000 live births. Any death of a woman within 42 days after pregnancy was terminated falls within the definition of maternal mortality.
On Sunday 11th of November, just about a week after she passed on, I got another call from Nsikak. His baby, the new born baby who was just 2 weeks old, was ill, in intensive care, and urgently needed blood.
“How much tragedy could one individual take?” I asked myself. Using all platforms, we began our routine of making appeals for blood donations.
Again, let’s put our baby on the national scale. He was just one of nearly 5,000 requirements for blood on that day. Of that number, more than half would die from lack of blood.
On December 23, the media in Nigeria reported that the national blood transfusion service had an annual 1.7 million pints deficit in blood donation.
Nigeria’s Minister of Health Professor, Isaac Adewole, at the commemoration of the World Blood Donor day in in June, this year, said: “Nigeria’s estimated blood need is about 1.8 million units of blood per annum; voluntary non-remunerated blood donation accounts for only 10% of our total blood collection”.
The National coordinator of the National Blood Transfusion Service, Dr. Oluwatosin Smith confirmed that the NBTS does not get more than 66,000 units of blood per year in its 17 centers across the country.
What it means, is that many of those in dire need of blood for survival, would die from lack of blood.
The data quoted was apparently collated from public hospitals. The need might be much higher, as many of the blood requirements also occur in private hospitals.
Weak coordination and sharing of data between facilities means that we might not even have the correct figures. However, the dearth of blood in our public facilities is mind boggling.
Even when such blood is procured, the delay in getting blood to the facility could be too late for the patients. The National Blood Transfusion Service in Abuja does not work on weekends, even though the requirement for blood is 24/7. It is open only on weekdays, and often times, there is not enough blood in its bank.
In our baby’s case, we knew it was on a Sunday and there was no way the blood bank would be open, so we went online; on all social media platforms, appealing to good spirited Nigerians resident in Abuja, who belonged to the blood group, O negative (O-) to donate blood.
We called. We begged. We received calls. Most of the calls were from people who just wanted to pray for us. At some point I got restless. My battery was running low receiving calls from people who just wanted to pray for us. Please pray privately, I was forced to say, kindly leave my lines open for potential blood donors.
Thankfully, we got voluntary blood donors. A gentle man called from Minna in Niger state, and said he would be on his way to Abuja just to donate blood.
We got yet another call from Nasarawa state and within Abuja, we got two life savers. They are O-, they are voluntary blood donors and they were going to set out immediately to the hospital.
Mr Isa Iyortim was our first donor. Because he gave his blood, our baby is alive today!
Another call
As I came in to put final touches to this short piece, and then file for publication, day 28 of December, I stumbled on yet another request for blood donation. It was a desperate appeal and thankfully, I belonged to the blood group required and I was due to donate, so I indicated.
Within 5 minutes, I got three calls. That underscored the urgency with which the blood was required. One of the callers even offered to pay my way to the hospital if I would be requiring such support.
I told the second caller I was just going to get myself a breakfast then I would head to the hospital. In response, she told me there was a restaurant in the hospital if I wouldn’t mind coming in.
I smiled and understood that what she wanted was to be sure I was coming, and for me to hasten it. I left immediately and called her when I got to the hospital.
She hugged me with such a wide smile, which conveyed how pleased she was to see me.
She was all over me. She tried to strike conversations. She wanted to be my friend. I was almost drawn to tears. Despite her wide beautiful smile, I saw she was restless and anxious.
I had to think of what to do to calm her. She would just not sit still. She was pacing, running and walking in between.
That is the typical scene each time we do a blood donation drive.
She was not the only one in that hospital needing blood.
There was someone else at the laboratory waiting to be bled for yet another patient. Life indeed hangs in the balance.
What makes the difference to survival now, is if you are able to reach out to friends, and relatives who are willing to donate blood. If you are not, then you consult the 60% of donors to whom payment must be made, otherwise, you say your last prayers.
Sadly, not many patients even have options of saying their last prayers. Accident victims come in unconscious, far from relatives, far from friends, taken to health facilities and without anyone to do things for them, the hospitals can only do as much.
Additionally, postpartum hemorrhage is a leading cause of maternal mortality, accounting for about 27% of all maternal deaths in Nigeria while bleeding from road traffic accidents is a leading cause of death among the young and middle aged.
It is estimated that about 20,000 children die daily in Nigeria with 30% due to causes related to anaemia,’ according to WHO, citing national figures.
Still quoting the NBTS: ‘Only 10 per cent of the available units of blood is obtained through voluntary donation.Donations from family members account for 30 percent while commercial donations account for 60 percent.’
Plotting us on the graph, we belong to the 10% of voluntary blood donors since we are not related to the recipient.
For now, we are proud to have saved lives.
When in need, we all remember that there is a blood bank which should just open up and give us as many pints as we may require, but we forget that if we do not donate, we might not get blood. We cannot get what we did not put in.
Scientifically, we understand that nearly everyone can donate blood, but many Nigerians are unwilling to donate. What miracle can the facilities perform?
So, let’s rise up to meet the challenge of nearly 1.7 million pints required in this country. It starts with us.
VON
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