A blood trans­fu­sion hap­pens every two sec­onds to ad­dress any­thing from surg­eries and se­vere ill­ness­es to can­cer treat­ments and trau­mat­ic in­juries, ac­cord­ing to the Amer­i­can Red Cross.

The need for blood is in­creas­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go and many per­sons can make an im­por­tant con­tri­bu­tion by do­nat­ing blood and by re­cruit­ing oth­ers to be­come donors. A 2019 sur­vey shared that on­ly 12% of mil­len­ni­als were blood donors or keen on do­nat­ing blood. Many sight­ed fear of nee­dles and the process as their main rea­son for not con­sid­er­ing this “Gift of Life”

In our con­ver­sa­tions with the pub­lic, they shared sev­er­al mis­con­cep­tions as­so­ci­at­ed with do­nat­ing blood that we must de-bunk.

Myth No. 1: It will hurt?

Be­yond the pinch of the nee­dle and the pres­sure on your arm from the tourni­quet, do­nat­ing blood does not hurt. You may ex­pe­ri­ence some dizzi­ness or light­head­ed­ness dur­ing or af­ter your do­na­tion but that sub­sides in a short space of time.

Myth No. 2: Blood can be stored for­ev­er

Blood and its dif­fer­ent com­po­nents have dif­fer­ent shelf lives. If not used right away, whole blood can be re­frig­er­at­ed for up to 35 days. So, reg­u­lar blood do­na­tion is im­por­tant.

Myth No. 3: I can’t do­nate if I have tat­toos or pierc­ings.

Yes, you can, just there is a wait.

Pre­vi­ous­ly one need­ed to wait one year af­ter the event of ob­tain­ing a tat­too or pierc­ing, now by the new El­i­gi­bil­i­ty Cri­te­ria of the Min­istry of Health, that has been shift­ed to 3 months.

Myth No. 4: I can’t do­nate if I’m on med­ica­tion.

This is on­ly par­tial­ly true. It is not the med­ica­tion it­self, but the rea­son why you are pre­scribed the med­ica­tion that could dis­qual­i­fy you from do­nat­ing blood. In­di­vid­u­als tak­ing cer­tain med­ica­tions, in­clud­ing an­ti­co­ag­u­lants, an­tiplatelet med­ica­tions, and some ac­ne treat­ments, should not do­nate blood.

Be­fore do­nat­ing, a per­son should speak with a med­ical pro­fes­sion­al to check whether their cur­rent med­ica­tions af­fect their el­i­gi­bil­i­ty to be a donor. Just as im­por­tant­ly, if a doc­tor has pre­scribed a med­ica­tion, peo­ple should not stop tak­ing it to do­nate blood.

Myth No. 5: I can on­ly do­nate once a year.

Your blood re­plen­ish­es it­self, but not all at once. Your body re­places the plas­ma you lost with­in 24 hours. Red blood cells take about four to six weeks to be com­plete­ly re­plen­ished. That’s why your wait is at least 56 days be­tween do­na­tions of whole blood.

• ↓Fe­males can do­nate up to 3 times over a 12-month pe­ri­od.

• ↓Males can do­nate up to 4 times over a 12-month pe­ri­od.

One thing to re­mem­ber how­ev­er:

Fact: Every do­na­tion can make a life­sav­ing dif­fer­ence.

And you can be that stranger that saves the life of 3 per­sons by do­nat­ing 1 unit to­day!