Friday 2 May 2008

I might just save lives

This is gonna be interesting.

What do you think about this blog post title?

You are rest assured, I did not do CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on a girl. Even if I want to, I am just not in a position to do it. I am not a qualified first-aider. But if I have an opportunity to learn first-aid, I'll go for it. And I do feel a bit sorry for not joining St. John Ambulance during my secondary school years. And I would regret that in future when I see a girl passing out in front of me and I am not able to give her the immediate CPR she would want.

I would have just missed the great opportunity to meet my Miss Right. :P

And she would have just missed the opportunity to meet her Mr Right - that's me! :XD

What a GREAT LOSS!

Fine, I do not know how to carry out CPR. But then, I might still save lives. Guess what, I have just donated 450ml of my blood to Pusat Darah Negara in April.

The blood donation campaign was carried out in the school hall. The venue was great, but not the response this campaign received. But then, we have a rightful justification for the so-so response. Most of the students are not eligible to donate their blood. If I am not mistaken, only those aged 17 and above can donate their blood. I am sure that most of the sixth-formers, if not all of them do fulfill the age requirement. But then, the number of sixth-formers is not quite encouraging.

Anyhow, Leo Club had done their part to blossom success in the campaign. Announcement had been made, representatives had been sent to the classes to seek potential blood donors.

In fact, it's the Leos' who kept me company when I was lying on the bed, donating blood. A Leo member talked to me to distract my attention from the tube to be inserted into my vein. As luck would have it, it's a guy. In spite of the gender not of my preference, I do want to thank him for his great services. He fanned me throughout the entire process. Should some of you not know the process, the blood donors have to hold something, preferably of cylindrical shape in their hands. And they are asked to voluntarily contract and relax their biceps muscle while holding the cylinders in hand. This, I suppose is to increase the blood flow to the muscle and thus the blood vein so that more blood can into the blood pack at a higher rate.

Besides the Leo member, there was this auntie that lied on a bed next to mine. She talked to me and assure me that donating blood is a very meaningful and beneficial activity to us.

To be frank, I was initially quite nervous about the pain I would get. But then, probably the will and the strong desire to help people won over the fear in me. It has always been my dream to reach out to the sick. If then I am not even able to endure the small pain - in fact it's no pain at all - to help the sick, what position am I in to consider being a doctor saving lives? I am far away from being a doctor, but at least I could do my bit to help save lives.

In fact, the nearly negligible pain I got is absolutely incomparable to the pain an accident victim would experience.

How am I supposed to compare the pains and sufferings of a leukemic patient with the mere tingling pain I got?

If you insist on a comparison between the two different pains, I would draw an analogy between a mere human being with the expanding, mysterious cosmic universe.

I know very well that me alone can do very little contributions to save lives. But at least I have conquered my fear and taken the initiate to help save lives. And I really feel the satisfaction of giving.

Who knows, as you are reading through the lines, my blood is being transfused into a girl's bloodstream. She might just have escaped the fate of death in the nick of time. If this does transpire, I would be looking forward to meeting her in future. But only God knows whether or not we'll see each other.

Again, who knows, she might just be my Miss Right.

P/S: Donating blood not only benefits other people, but also the blood donors themselves. Blood donors are given priority for blood transfusion in case any serious blood loss happens to them. Do consider donating your blood when you have such opportunity.

1 comment:

Fern said...

is 18 year-old and above...