The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Medicos launch blood donors club

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Tuesday, Dec 08, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Medicos launch blood donors club

Special Correspondent

The club, run by the students, has a website

— PHOTO: K.V. SRINIVASAN

Honoured: Health Secretary V.K. Subburaj presents an award to neurosurgeon and alumnus of MMC T.S. Kanaka at the launch of the blood donors club of the college at a function in Chennai on Monday. Actor ‘Jeyam’ Ravi is in the picture.

CHENNAI: About 1,000 students of the Madras Medical College and those of the nursing and pharmacy colleges affiliated to the MMC and Madras Dental College launched a blood donors club on Monday.

The club, run by the students has a website – www.bdcmmc.org – and has come out with an informative CD on blood donation. The club has created a database of the donors. It has provided contact details, including e-mail IDs and mobile phone numbers of four medical students in charge of the club who could be reached in case of emergency. A volunteer is stationed in the hospital’s blood bank throughout the day.

Blood donation camps will be conducted twice a year in the college, which has also tied up with Chennai Corporation to conduct the camps across the city. According to S. M.Chandramohan, head of Surgical Gastroenterology Department of the college, MMC’s efforts could ensure that the Government General Hospital received 5,000 units of blood annually. The hospital is a tertiary care centre which receives a large number of accident victims, many of whom require blood transfusion. Health Secretary V.K. Subburaj, who praised the students’ effort, said that currently 90 per cent of blood donation in the State was voluntary. This was a significant improvement from 2004, when only 57 per cent of the donations were voluntary.

Government General Hospital Dean J. Mohanasundaram recalled that there was a time when even the poor queued up to donate blood as they received Rs.7 for every unit donated. At the function neurosurgeon T.S. Kanaka, who had donated blood 139 times, was honoured. Actor ‘Jeyam’ Ravi, who issued the membership cards, urged youngsters to come forward for the cause. Youngsters should lead the way, he said.

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