Life Skills
Form 4
Chapter 1
BLOOD DONATION
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Compiled By: Wycliffe Manondo
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BLOOD DONATION
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this chapter, the student should be able to:
1. explain the importance of blood donation
2. identify the responsibilities of a blood donor
3. identify characteristics of a blood donor
4. identify groups of people who can donate blood
5. explain what to do after donating blood
6. discuss the benefits of blood donation to the community
7. describe qualities of a blood donor
8. mention expectations of a blood donor
9. explain the importance of donating blood
10. explain what happens to donated blood
11. explain the benefits of receiving blood
12. explain the importance of donating blood
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CONTENTS
• Importance of blood donation
• Responsibilities of a blood donor
• Characteristics of a blood donor
• groups of people who can donate blood
o identifying groups of people who can donate blood
o Characteristics of groups of people who can donate blood
• what to do after donating blood
• benefits of blood donation to the community
• qualities of a blood donor
• expectations of a blood donor
o how much blood to donate
o when to donate blood
o where to donate blood
o how to donate blood
• The importance of donating blood
• What happens to donated blood
o screening transfusion and transmissible infections
o feedback of results
• Benefits of receiving blood transfusion
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IMPORTANCE OF BLOOD DONATION
It is important for you to donate blood. The following are the reason;
1. it improves your healthy
Donating blood is important for your healthy. It enhances the
production of new blood cells in your body. It also helps to burn
excess calories hence improving your body fitness. In addition, it
helps to reduce the amount of iron in your body hence lowers the
risk of heart attack. You generally feel invigorant and re-organized
after giving blood.
2. It brings personal satisfaction
Donating blood enables you to drive a sense of satisfaction about
saving someone’s life.
3. It offers you free healthy screen service
Before donating blood, you are screened for blood pressures and
other healthy conditions. You are also tested for some major disease
such as malaria. This is all done free of charge.
4. It ensures availability of blood in hospitals.
When you donate blood regularly, hospitals and other health facilities
are assured of having blood at all times which they can use for
treating patients requiring blood.
Responsibilities of blood donor
The following are some of the responsibilities of blood donor.
1. He or she must be willing and ready to donate blood.
2. He or she must understand the need for donating blood i.e. he or she
must donate blood freely and without expecting any reward except
the feeling of personal satisfaction about saving someone’s life.
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3. He must be truthful when giving information about his medical
history, current healthy and life style in order to safe guard his or her
healthy and the healthy of the recipient.
Characteristics of a blood donor
A blood donor must have the following characteristics;
1. Be someone who is healthy. He or she must be free from any
infection that can be transmitted to the person receiving blood.
2. Be between the age of 16 and 65
3. Not be taking any medication such as antibiotics
4. Be someone whose life style does not put him or her at risk of
contracting infections. For example, he or she must not have more
than one sexual partner
5. Not recently had a tattoo and any ear or body piercing.
Groups of people that can donate blood
Groups of people that can donate blood include students, teachers, nurses,
sports personalities and others. But they must be appropriate age and free
from infections.
Things to do after donating blood
There are a number of things that are required to do after donating blood.
1. Drink plenty of water.
Drink plenty of water, fruit juice and other fluids after donating
blood. This helps to keep your blood pressure up. If you do not do
this, you can faint and develop dizziness.
2. Eat snacks
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Eat snacks with high sugar content. This restores blood lost during
donation.
3. Have a rest.
After donating blood, make sure you rest for few minutes (at least 10
to 20 minutes) before leaving the donation site.
4. Eat meals with high protein content
After donating blood, eat beef, beans, eggs and other foods high in
protein content. Eat vegetables as well. This will help your body
make more blood and prevent anemia.
5. Avoid heavy exercises
You need to avoid strenuous exercises after donating blood. These
include jumping, dancing and running. You should do these after
your body has had an adequate rest.
Benefits of blood donation to the community
If people donate blood, the community stands to benefits in the following
ways
1. Many lives are saved
When people donate blood, many lives are saved. It saves lives of
babies, people requiring operations and women in child birth. It
also gives hope to many other people whose situations may
otherwise be hopeless.
2. It brings joy to many people.
When people in the community donate blood, they bring an
impact on patients whose lives depend on blood donations. They
also impact all people that depend on the patient. The whole
community benefits from this act of generosity.
The importance of donating blood
Donating blood is an important exercise because of the following
reasons;
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1. One enjoys the feeling of knowing that you have helped save life.
2. Upon donating, a donor gets their blood pressure and hemoglobin
levels checked. The donor is able to know their blood type and
healthy status.
3. Blood donation helps to reduce unwanted calories and cholesterol
levels in the body. One point of blood contains about six hundred
calories that a donor may not need. However, blood donation should
not be interpreted as a weight loss plan.
4. It has been proven that repeated blood donations are effective in
reducing blood pressure.
5. It helps in generation of new red blood cells and therefore refreshes
the body system.
6. Blood donation also helps reduce the risk of developing heart disease
because it removes iron content in the blood. Too much iron in the
blood causes it to be thick, and this may weaken the heart.
What happens to donated blood
During a blood donation exercise, the blood donor is registered.
Details such as the name, birth date and identification number are
noted. A mini check-up is also done for each blood donor. The blood
pressure, heart rate and temperature are noted. Blood is then drawn
and labeled and put in a cooler and then taken to the laboratory.
The blood is then put in a machine known as a centrifuge. This
machine separates the blood into three components; red blood cells,
plasm and platelets. Red blood cells are used for patients who need
red cell transfusion, for example those are anemic. Platelets are used
on cancer patients because they can not produce their own. Plasma
is used for clotting purposes to stop bleeding in patients.
The next step is that the blood is categorized into A, B, O and AB
type and whether it has a positive or negative RH factor. The RH
factor does not affect ones healthy. However, the rh factor
determines what blood one receives during transfusion.
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The blood is also tested for viruses and bacteria infections such as
hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV and syphilis. The blood that does not
pass any one of these tests is disposed.
Blood that has been screened and passes the test appropriately
stored in the hospitals blood blank. Platelets have a short life span of
five days; red blood cells for forty-two days while plasma can be
stored for up to one year.
The benefits of receiving blood
Blood transfusion has been known to be useful in the following
circumstances.
1. Accidents victims who have lost a lot of blood need a blood
transfusion to avert death. Blood is important as it supplies
oxygen and nutrients to the body tissues.
2. During major surgeries such as heart surgery, blood transfusion is
needed to replace what the patient has lost.
3. During child birth or during a miscarriage, some women bleed
heavily and they need a blood transfusion to save their lives.
4. For those patients with bleeding problems, transfusion with blood
platelets or plasma helps prevents bleeding complications. Blood
platelets or plasma helps stop the bleeding as they have clotting
properties.
5. Patients with disease such as Leukemia and cancer often develop
anemia when they receive chemotherapy or radiotherapy
treatment. Their bodies do not generate red blood cell normally.
Such patients require a blood transfusion regularly until their
conditions are corrected after the treatment.
6. These are also patients who have bone marrow failure which may
occur as a result of genetic disorders. Such patients cannot
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produce red blood cells and therefore need a blood transfusion
regularly until a bone marrow surgery is done.
Review questions
1. Describe four characteristics of a blood donor.
2. State two responsibilities of a blood donor
3. Explain the importance of donating blood
4. Mention two benefits of donating blood to the community
5. Explain three things you need to do after donating blood
6. Describe three groups of people that can donate blood.
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