With increasingly sick patients being treated with ever more sophisticated medical regimens, the The Blood Bank, which was spacious and adequate for the demands of a quarter of a century ago, is now inadequate. Hadassah’s Blood Bank needs premises appropriate to its key role in advanced 21st century medical care and the growing volume of work it performs.
This includes collecting blood from donors, comprehensive testing of the blood to ensure its safety, and processing the blood for individualized transfusions into patients with varying needs. Your donation will enable Hadassah to increase the Blood Transfusion Department’s physical space by approximately 40%, providing a more comfortable environment for blood donors, as well as to purchase new, sophisticated laboratory equipment to test and analyze the blood.
As a recent immigrant, the Russian woman had no support network to turn to when she was diagnosed with lymphoma and needed blood for her bone marrow transplant. Her four-year-old daughter understood more of her parents’ worried conversation than they realized. While at kindergarten, she told her playmates that her mommy needed blood for a big operation and didn’t know where to find it. Some of those children took the story home with them. The evening of the next day, the phone rang in the home of the Russian family.
“We hear you need blood donors,” said the caller. “I’m the father of a child in your daughter’s kindergarten. There are 30 kids in the kindergarten, which makes 60 parents. I’ve spoken to most of these parents and everyone I’ve reached so far is happy to go to Hadassah and give blood for you.”
The Patient with Rare Blood
A 41-year-old woman with end-stage liver failure was fortunate to qualify for a liver transplant. She found, however, that she would need a lot of blood during the surgery and she had an extremely rare blood type. There were no compatible donors within her immediate family.
