"Imagine this scenario. A patient is critical and in need of a rare blood type. The family is told to either provide for, or make arrangements to replace the blood before the surgery can proceed. Now imagine if this family knew that the hospital's demand is against the UAE law..."
Interesting feature at Emirates Evening Post today, 'It's illegal to ask for blood donations'.
"...An urgent plea was posted on an online community portal as the patient who was admitted to a private hospital, could not find a donor with the same blood type. Help poured in, but it took the family three days to arrange for donors and procure the blood required for an operation. ...the demand made by the patient was a clear violation of UAE law."
I've seen some posts in the UAE community blog asking for blood donations before. Didn't know it was illegal.
On the side note, I've only read two issues of Emirates Evening Post, and it's great. There are copies left to be taken in our flat's lobby, the watchman told me it's free so I took one copy the other day and today, but I think it's 1 dirham per issue..
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10 comments:
This is really sad :-(
When will we ever have DECENT hospitals.....
It's not about decent hospitals, it's probably a misinterpretation of a law (or a poorly written law, like most laws here) designed to stop the sale of body parts.
I reposted the donation appeal here after seeing it on another forum. The point of it was that the person had/needed a very rare blood type. It's hard enough to find donors in a country with 50 million people, a long-established blood donation programme and extensive and well managed medical record databases.
In a tiny, highly itinerant population like the UAE, where there is very poor databasing and centralisation (if any), let alone database sharing between departments, it must be an absolute nightmare.
Nightmare is the right word.... When will we ever wake up and realize that life is too short to cut other peoples life short just because we cant deal and handle it with the care and respect it needs...Not only is my blood boiling, but I guess my blood has frozen too... :-(
I've read the EEP a couple of times and it's pants. They give it away free at bookshops here, as nobody will fork out even the measly one dirham to pay for a copy - which says it all, really.
I like the EEP. It knows what it wants to be. It is also a lot ballsier than 7days.
They could solve the blood donation problem so easily too. We all have to give blood samples when we get our residence visas, so they could easily determine everyone's blood type. At that time they could ask if you wish to be registered as a blood donor (not everyone would want to, or be able to, of course). Then they could just send you an SMS to remind you when you're eligible to donate or when there's an urgent requirement. I know many people wouldn't sign up for it, but I'm sure a lot more would than do now.
trailingspouse
Great idea, just one little problem. When was the last time something run by any government work out?
How about the MoH / RedCross-Crescent allowing people to register. And doing the SMS thing. That way the only people who register are the ones who are really willing to donate. With the immigration department version of this idea, a bunch of idiots will say yes when asked and decline when the call comes. just my 2 cents
My post was updated! thanks to the admin/s who worked on it. ^_____^
Poo I know what you mean about governments. However leaving it up to people to register themselves is essentially the system we have now. I went and registered at Al Wasl and now they call me when they need my blood. Only problem is, there are so few of us.
If you pro-actively ask people if they want to be blood donors during the immigration dept process, I think you might get a better response.
So finally are we able to donate blood or not? And if where? Are there any particular bodies like the Red Crescent etc. which keep a database of willing donors? There is a site uaedonors.com, but I am not sure how they function. Anyone has experience there?
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