GALLERY: Blood donors honoured
Donors who were honoured donated blood from 25 units to 400 units.
SCORES of blood donors were honoured at the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) Egoli East Donor for Life Awards on March 9, at The Pyramid Conference Centre, Village Deep.
Donors who were honoured donated blood from 25 units to 400 units. Garrard Roos received a certificate for being the top donor with 400 units. Chief Operations Officer Ravi Reddy handed over the certificate to Garrard.
This year’s blood transfusion recipient was Jesse Natasen who was born in 2005. Her mother, Mags Natasen, thanked everyone in the room for her daughter’s well-being.
“Jesse was born at 31 weeks of pregnancy; usually babies are born at 40 weeks. She weighed 1kg. Typically, new-born babies weigh about 3kg. We knew that she had a bone marrow failure because she did not produce enough red blood cells.
“She received her first blood transfusion at 20 weeks of pregnancy. Jesse spent her first three months in neonatal ICU at Sunninghill Hospital. We only brought her home when she was three months old and still she only weighed 1.8kg. Currently, she requires a blood transfusion every three weeks (two to three units per transfusion),” explained Mags.
Mags also mentioned that today Jesse is a bubbly young girl thanks to the unselfish blood donors who keep on giving life to people like her (Jesse). She also thanked the SANBS staff who works tirelessly especially on weekends to collect blood.
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