Pala: More than 95 donors participated in a blood-donation drive held at the St Joseph's College of Engineering and Technology here. It was jointly organised by the technical cell of the National Service Scheme (NSS) unit of the college and the Blood Donors Kerala chapter.
The initiative, supported by the S H Medical Hospital and the Kottayam Medical College had a staggering registration count of 200, for an initial target of 80 donors.
Professors Anto Manuel and Baiju Jacob, Programme Officers of the NSS unit at the college, had coordinated the one-day donation drive, for which Aneesh George, Abhay P, Riya Rose, and Gayathri Raj were the volunteer secretaries.
With a surging population count, India requires about 5 crore units of blood but only a paltry 2.5 crore units of blood is available. This demand roughly translates to more than 36,000 blood donations per day to meet the need.
A pint of blood can save up to 3 lives. As a usual blood transfusion generally draws approximately 3 pints of blood, a single blood transfusion can save many a life.
(A pint is a unit of liquid equal to about half a litre. There are eight pints in a gallon or 4.55 ltr)
Dr Vishal Sony, a member of the Blood Donors Kerala group, expressed his joy at the huge donor turnout. "Sorry SJCET, we didn't have enough capacity to bleed you all! Will surely come back next time; an overwhelming response on your part," read a post on the official Blood Donors Kerala page on Facebook.