Finally, Got my blood sucked!!


I used to be quite a regular blood donor back home in India and must have donated at least 10-12 times. After coming to Singapore I tried a few times to donate and each time I couldn’t due to some very minor procedural issues.

Yesterday I had to go to NUH for a medical appointment and after that was done I happened to be around the Blood bank. I decided that I should resume my donation. But Singapore procedures refused to make things easy for me :( Apparently I couldn’t donate because I had been to India in May. The friendly lady at the reception told me that the current regulations have become stringent due to cases of bird flu/ Malaria and if you have visited some of the bird flu/ Malaria affected countries in the last six months then you become ineligible for donation. India was a country on the list and I was rejected for visiting my homeland :(

I was keen on donating, so I persisted and the friendly lady at the reception directed me to Singapore General Hospital. Apparently the facility at SGH had more advanced screening capabilities and hence would be in a position to accept my donation. So off I went to SGH to infect some Singaporean with my blood. But apparently that Singaporean got lucky as the facility in SGH has a weekly holiday on Monday, ie yesterday :(

Now it was getting a bit irritating that despite such good intentions I couldn’t execute such a simple deed. So I crossed half of Singapore again today to reach SGH to attempt another shot at getting sucked :(

It wasn't easy, the initial paper work was quite irritating. Some of the questions were a tad rude and in fact the rules about UK and Europe at first glance didn’t quite seem very logical. However fortunately this time I survived the procedures and finally got my blood sucked for a good cause ;) Though the process occurred only with riders. I was told that due to my visit to India my blood will be quarantined and will be used only after a certain period. Whatever inconvenience I may have gone through the thing is that if I need any blood transfusion I would feel very safe if it originated from Singapore.


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