Life and death: Why you should often donate blood

‘”I’m thirsty. Please help me with some water...’ ‘My wife said in a weak voice. She was breathless and faint. She had slowly deteriorated while I watched and couldn’t act to save her. I felt helpless....”’
These are the words of our friend, a doctor and a husband – we will call him Dr M. His wife died from post-partum haemorrhage (HHP) after delivering their third child. Dr M’s wife had a healthy pregnancy and normal delivery. Two hours after she had delivered a bouncing baby girl, she started feeling faint. When she informed the nurses, they discovered she had been bleeding and her bedsheets were soaked in blood.
“We had done everything right, but there was no blood in the hospital. We did everything right...”
Dr M’s wife was given standard treatments for PPH including medication, IV fluids, and uterine massage. Then she needed blood. There was none. Dr M remembers the hospital staff running around looking for blood, the calls that were made by the panic stricken staff in adrenaline mode. He sat and watched his wife slip away.
Postpartum haemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality in Kenya, causing one-third of childbearing deaths. Each year roughly 2,500 Kenyan mothers die from bleeding after delivery. The number of mothers that we lose each year to this single, preventable cause would equal 178 fatal matatu accidents. They would fill the entire indoor gymnasium at Nyayo National Stadium.
And yet there is no public outcry...