World Blood Donor Day was celebrated at the Port Moresby General Hospital hosted by the Sir Brian Bell Blood Transfusion unit of the hospital, on Wednesday 14th June 2023.
The small but significant celebration featured mostly the faithful donors who have given selflessly over the years and months life giving blood to those in need.
The day was simultaneously observed with blood donor drives around the city and the country where Brian Bell stores are located.
“Give Blood, Give Plasma, Share Life, Share Often” is the theme of the 2023 World Blood Donor Day.
Dr. Kone Sobi, Director Medical Services at PMGH emphasized that demand for blood donor is very high, and blood donation is a free medical treatment.
“We experience lot of violence, very unfortunate but that is true. And so all the trauma cases that will come to the hospital, this is in addition to natural illnesses like cancer, other medical conditions that require blood transfusion and of course our surgical operations everyday of the week that require blood transfusion so our demand is very high,” Dr Sobi said.
Chairman of Transfusion Committee at the PMGH, Dr. Carl Kingston appealed to the community to give unsparingly, to give life to another through their blood.
Dr. Kingston said; “In 2022, 26,900 people came forward to give blood. Through the screening process we could only receive of those 26,900 people 11,238 people donated, and we received 11,238 bags. The total voluntary donors among these people was 3,472. And of these 3,472 voluntary donors, 1,169 were actually new donors.”
Dr. Kingston added that family replacement donors represented 7,767 people. Thus the total number of blood bags collected in 2022 was 11,238 bags, but still not reaching the demand for blood with the number of requests being for over 56,000 bags.
During the celebration, generous blood donors were recognized by being given a certificate and shopping voucher from Brian Bell Group of Companies. One of them was a PMGH’s own Radiologist, Dr. Mark Moshi.
“I do this not for recognition, just as a personal thing to me that I want to help as many people as I can. My belief is that if you are in a position to provide service or provide help, you should do it. There’s no two ways about it. So I’m lucky to be a doctor here working but I want to also extend my help apart from just providing medical care, personal care because this is a personal thing of mine to donate blood,” said Dr. Moshi.
Dr. Moshi started donating blood because he is available and it is free.