(Zaman Al Wasl)- The first blood bank was established recently in the city of Rastan in the northern Homs region.
The bank established by individual initiatives provides blood units with various elements of plasma, red blood cells and blood platelets for the needy patients in the northern Homs countryside in light of bombardment, siege and deteriorating medical conditions.
Director of al-Rastan hospital Dr. Kamal Bahbouh told Zaman al-Wasl that the project was proposed to several organizations for funding, but was refused under pretext that the region is in a state of war and siege, and there are things more urgent. He added that even the organization that funds al-Rastan Hospital did not adopt the project so far.
Bahbouh said that the work on the project has been done by individual efforts by al-Rastan Hospital and the hospital was able to the devices with difficulty after six months of waiting. The devices were entered through smugglers to al-Rastan as well as blood bags special to the separation of blood which not found in the region in addition their high price. These blood bags are sold usually in the black market while some medical amenities have been dispensed.
According to Bahbouh, the bank is composed of several devices, including a blood separator, triangles, refrigerators and disease detectors.
He pointed out that the first of the stages of blood collection from the donor to enter the allocated device to be separated into the basic elements and each element of has a special tank, such as Plasma, which is placed in the freezing degree in the refrigerator and red corals placed in a refrigerator with temperature less than 0 to 4 degrees Celsius. Thrombocytopenia is placed at room temperature and has a special device, the "jug" which constantly moves platelets where it should not be static.
Dr. Bahbouh confirmed that the donors in the northern countryside of Homs are always ready to donate. He explained that al-Rastan Hospital has a directory of rare blood groups where the names and phone numbers of citizens who have them are called when needed in addition to our stock in the hospital.
He pointed out that the blood will be free of charge for all hospitals and individuals in the northern Homs countryside, stressing that the bank has a sufficient stock for six months to come, and he expressed the hope that additional stock will be provided to be enough for a longer period.
More than 100,000 civilians in the city of al-Rastan suffer from a siege imposed by the Syrian regime on the northern Homs countryside since the beginning of the revolution which put the residents of the city in constant confrontation with the difficult conditions of life especially the deterioration of health and medical conditions, which was reflected in the shortage of medical personnel of all specialties and lack of medicine and surgical supplies of gauze and sterilization and the equipment necessary for the operation of surgery and the difficulty of getting patients and injured outside al-Rastan to complete treatment.
While activists reported that al-Rastan have five doctors now out of tens of doctors who left the city since the outbreak of the revolution.
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