The world and Kyiv, especially, need more people like Maria Tkachenko to fill the chronically short supply of lifesaving blood needed for victims of accidents or those in need of surgery and transplants. Since 2010, Tkachenko of Kyiv has voluntarily parted with 4.5 liters of hers – and she is ready to do it again to relieve suffering and save lives.
“I understand that there is a great lot of people who feel much worse than I do, who can die without my help,” says Tkachenko, a 33-year-old housewife who has no money to share, but definitely produces enough healthy blood to give.
According to Kyiv city blood donor center chief Lyudmila Zanevska, there are about 800 regular donors registered in the main downtown center. Hemo-transfusion departments under Ministry of Defense and Pivdenno-Zakhidna Railways Hospitals, several medical research institutes and specialized hospitals have their own donors.
Zanevska says that 12 to 14 milliliters of donated blood per Kyivan is needed each year for the capital to have enough blood and blood products.
But not enough people are giving like Tkachenko, who was fatefully (she thinks) born on June 14 – World Blood Donor Day. Now she has given 10 times, a process that is easy and painless, she said.
In Ukraine, a person can give blood up to five times a year, if between the ages of 18 and 60, and healthy. The volume drawn is 450 milliliters, or one pint.
And they can get paid for doing so.
Although the amounts vary by city and center, some Kyiv donors can receive Hr 76 for giving blood and another Hr 13 for a meal to help restore one’s energy.
While Tkachenko considers giving blood an act of charity, more needs to be done to encourage people to keep up the available supply of the highly perishable product.
The law gives donors additional benefits, such as paid time off work. But in reality, employers rarely abide by it, says Zanevska, who has given blood 45 times.
Donors are required to bring a passport and have their blood screened for HIV and other problems, as well as answer questions about their medical history.
Zanevska said the laboratory of the Kyiv blood donor center has been using infection detection equipment from the American firm Abbott since 2007. “This is a robot tester that eliminates the human factor in blood analysis,” says donor center chief.
Tkachenko has seen colleagues come to donate blood for another person’s needed blood transfusion. On another occasion, military cadets turned out on orders – once a common practice in the USSR, when mass blood donations were organized for factory workers and other groups of people.
Then, donating blood was seen as patriotic and humane. People who served as donors 100 times and more were awarded the title of honorary donor, and their portraits were pinned on boards awaded at their places of work.
But now the number of donors has dropped significantly, so advocates such as Tkachenko stress the positive and life-saving possibilities of giving.
“I do hold the opinion that a donor voluntarily giving his blood passes on part of his positive energy,” Tkachenko said.
Zanevska considers donating blood as synonymous with mercy, loving one’s neighbor and generosity. She thinks Ukrainian society has not completely lost these feelings, but they are somewhere deep inside, coming out when awful tragedies happen. Crowds of volunteers appear ready to give their blood to the injured, as in the case of Oksana Makar, the victim of one of Ukraine’s most heinous crimes in recent years.
“However, few people think there is an everyday need of blood,” Zanevska says.
The Kyiv city blood donor center chief is sure that if the nation learns how much blood is needed and how many lives it could save, donations would be more significant. “We are in need of promotion,” Zanevska says.
Everyone is welcome to donate blood in the following hospitals:
Kyiv specialized children’s hospital Okhmatdet
28/1 Vyacheslav Chornovil Street
tel. (044) 236-26-99
Kyiv Regional Hospital
1 Baggovutivska street, building 13
tel. (044) 483-10-56
Kyiv City Blood Donor Center
12 Maxim Berlinsky street
tel. (044) 440-66-33
tel. (044) 440-54-88
Kyiv Post staff writer Denis Rafalsky can be reached at [email protected].
