One of the positive outcomes of becoming an ICU nurse is that it triggered me to start donating blood.

Seeing the emergency response to patients with life-threatening bleeding opened my eyes to the volume of blood that can be needed to save one life and how all of it comes from the generosity of strangers.

When someone is haemorrhaging and their life is on the line, they don’t just need one blood transfusion. They need many transfusions of all different types of blood products – red blood cells, platelets, plasma, special clotting proteins, as well as a complex mix of other infusions to stabilise their physiology.

It involves the activation of something called the Massive Transfusion Protocol and then the organised chaos of multiple doctors and nurses working double time to save the patient.

In other situations, patients may need multiple blood transfusions over a longer period of time as they have major surgeries or receive treatment for a wide range of different diseases, such as cancers, infections, immune deficiencies, blood disorders, and liver and kidney diseases.

Blood is literally the liquid of life and after being the nurse to give countless transfusions to countless patients, I realised I needed to put my arm out and become a blood donor too.

In life-threating situations, blood transfusions can be hand pumped into the patient.

This year, more than 100,000 Australians became blood donors for the first time, contributing to a massive 1 million litres of donated blood and plasma.

At any given time, there are about 500,000 active donors as people join and leave the Lifeblood register.

But with an ageing donor base, the Australian Red Cross needs more younger people to step up and join the ranks of people giving the gift of life through blood donation.

In a country the size of Australia, a blood donation is needed every 18 seconds or 3 a minute, equating to more than 1.5 million donations needed every year to meet demand.

This year, donors have provided a total of 1.6 million donations. Of that, 762,515 donations produced 358,382 litres of whole blood, and 875,059 donations produced 721,924 litres of plasma.

Anyone from the age of 18 to 76 can be screened for eligibility as a first-time donor. There are 91 donor centres around Australia and they are open year-round, including Christmas Day at major city centres.

While road traumas and emergency surgeries contribute to an increase in demand over the holiday period, many more donations are needed to help patients with cancer and other chronic diseases get home for Christmas.

Blood transfusions are used to treat a wide range of injuries and diseases.

HOW TO BECOME A BLOOD DONOR
* Phone: 13 14 95
* Book online: Lifeblood | Be a life-saver today | Donate blood and more
* Check your eligibility: Eligibility | Lifeblood
* Frequently asked questions: FAQ | Lifeblood

A type of transfusion called Packed Red Blood Cells. Picture: Australian Red Cross Lifeblood

BLOOD FACTS:

  • Before modern medicine, blood was viewed as magical because when it drained from the body, life left as well.
  • In modern medicine, blood is examined more than anything else to diagnose and treat illness and disease.
  • Blood has three important functions: transport, regulation and protection.
  • Transport: blood delivers oxygen from the lungs and nutrients from the digestive tract to every cell of the body. Blood then takes the metabolic waste from those cells to elimination sites – lungs and kidneys. Blood also transports hormones from endocrine glands to their target organ.
  • Regulation: blood performs many important functions to regulate the body. For example: absorbing and distributing heat and maintaining adequate fluid volumes.
  • Protection: the protective functions of blood include preventing blood loss by forming clots and preventing infection by carrying antibodies and white blood cells.
  • Blood is made up of plasma (55%) and formed elements (45%). Formed elements are red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
  • Plasma is a sticky, yellow fluid. It’s about 90% water and 10% a mix of more than 100 solutes, such as electrolytes, proteins including antibodies and clotting factors, nutrients and metabolic byproducts, and hormones.
  • Red blood cells (erythrocytes) make up about 45% of blood and they transport respiratory gases – oxygen and carbon dioxide. Haemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries and delivers oxygen, and then removes carbon dioxide. One haemoglobin molecule can transport 4 oxygen molecules.
  • White blood cells (leukocytes) make up less than 1% of blood volume, but are bigger in number than red blood cells. They are essential to our defence against disease, forming a mobile army to protect the body from bacteria, viruses, toxins and tumour cells. Blood transports white blood cells to areas where they mount an inflammatory or immune response. Whenever white blood cells are activated, the body speeds up production and their numbers can double within a few hours.
  • There are different types of white blood cells and they can be remembered like this: Never Let Moneys Eat Bananas (neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils). This is also the order of most abundant to least abundant.
  • Platelets (thrombocytes) are essential for the clotting process when blood vessels rupture or are damaged. Platelets stick to the damaged site to form a temporary plug while a series of reactions are set in motion to stop the bleeding.
  • Three steps happen quickly to stop bleeding (haemostasis): vasoconstriction, platelet plug formation, and coagulation (blood clotting). Most clotting factors are plasma proteins made by the liver.
My blood group is A+ and this is the key ring I received for donating blood.
  • Humans have different blood types, which are determined by special markers on the surface of red blood cells called antigens. Your blood type has two parts – the ABO group and the Rhesus group.
  • There are 4 different ABO blood groups: A, B, AB, O. Type A carries the A antigen; Type B carries the B antigen; Type AB carries both antigens; Type O carries neither antigen. Type O is considered the “universal donor” and Type AB is considered the “universal recipient”.
  • The Rhesus group contains about 50 different antigens on the surface of red blood cells. The most important is RhD and people are classified as either Rh positive or Rh negative.
  • A person’s blood group is a combination of the two parts, such as A+ or B-.
  • You don’t need to know your blood group to donate blood, but once you do Lifeblood will be able to tell you what it is.

SOURCE: Human Anatomy and Physiology, by Marieb & Hoehn