Sick kid’s hospital  blood bank near crisis

Reserves of blood in  Panama’s Hospital Del Nino (Children’s Hospital)  are nearing  a crisis stage and authorities of the Blood Bank of the hospital, located in Calidonia, are running a campaign to attract donors

Kiriam Güete, technical head of the Blood Bank of the hospital said that, at the start of the month, there were 80 units of different types of blood in the refrigerators, and of these, only 55 were available since the rest had been separated for patient use.

The specialist invited the population to “lose fear and give life”, since, he said, with a single unit of blood you can save three adults or between 5 and 8 children.

To donate, the person need only go to the Blood Bank located on the ground floor of the main building of the Hospital del Niño,  on Avenida Balboa.where medical staff will be waiting from Monday to Friday, between 7:00 am and 5:00 pm.  On weekends and holidays, attention is from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

blood banks of other hospitals in Panama province such as the National Oncological Institute, the Santo Tomás Hospital and the Arnulfo Arias Madrid Hospital Complex, as well as the Luis Chicho Fábrega Hospital, in Veraguas; and the Rafael Hernández Hospital, in Chiriqui,  are also calling  on voluntary donors, with the aim of increasing their blood reserves.

The Hospital del Niño attends to 110,000 external specialist  and 100,000 urgency cases each year