Every day the hospitals in Castilla y León need 400 bags of blood to meet the demand for transfusions generated by healthcare activity. It is, therefore, essential that every day 400 people donate this living tissue so that all patients who need it are guaranteed adequate treatment.
The challenge is not trivial. Blood cannot be manufactured and only the altruistic act of donation allows this fluid to be made available essential to keep us alive. Invasive surgeries, acts of violence, trauma, bleeding, or cancer treatments require blood transfusions every day for the survival of patients.
But just as important as the donor are the health professionals who are in charge of guaranteeing blood reserves to make it available to requests from hospitals.
In Zamora, a team made up of the doctor Nuria Ramos and the nurses Olga Mezquita, Lucía Fulgencio and Mar Nogal performs the extractions, both from the fixed center in the Transit College of the capital and through the mobile points distributed throughout all the regions of the province. Fermoselle, Bermillo de Sayago, Toro, Puebla, Villalpando, Benavente, Santa Cristina de la Polvorosa, Morales de Toro, Fuentesaúco, Alcañices…. From north to south and from east to west, the professionals travel periodically in a van from the Castilla y León Hemotherapy and Hemodonation Center where they transport the necessary material to carry out the extractions. “We go with all the equipment in tow, in each municipality they give us the place and we set up the entire infrastructure,” says Dr. Ramos.
This newspaper has accompanied the team on one of its outings through the province. Bermillo de Sayago. Twenty minutes before four o’clock in the afternoon, he parked the vehicle, this time driven by Gregorio, with Dr. Ramos and the nurses Olga Mezquita and Lucía Fulgencio on board. With no time to waste, the four of them take down all the material from the van to install the “hospitalillo” in one of the rooms of the Health Center; in other towns it may be the Town Hall itself, a sports hall or the social hall. Synchronized and fast work. Stretchers, tubes, donation bags, chips, the tension device, water, juices or a snack. The mobile unit is equipped as if it were in its fixed headquarters. “We organize ourselves very well,” say the nurses dressed in gowns and, in times of a pandemic, accentuating all security measures.
COVID requires extreme precautions. “Before you left the tablets and tokens in the banks and the donors took them, they already knew what they had to do; you didn’t have to be on top. Now we ask them to try to bring their own pen, they are received one by one at the entrance with wipes or hydroalcoholic gel and, for example, to take the tension in the cuff we put a sheet and thus avoid touching the skin “ explains Nuria Ramos.
In addition to the health effects, the pandemic has a perceptible social impact in the corridor of the Health Center, more solitary and silent than usual. “Before, one or two people accompanied the donor, mothers and fathers came with the children, it was a social event where conversations were started, which are sometimes very necessary in rural areas; but now they have to come alone ”.
Isabel Carrera herself, who voluntarily collaborates with the cause in the Sayago region, had to leave her two children with a friend to help the team during the five hours they have been in Bermillo.
This afternoon 26 people have attended, of which 6 have not been able to donate because they did not meet any of the necessary requirements to carry out the blood extraction. They are fewer donors than usual. Bermillo registers an average of 35-40 donations each time the team travels, but “it is a time of colds, there may be colds, the day is very unpleasant and it does not invite people to travel either,” argues Dr. Ramos. COVID effect, fear of contagion? “It may retract something, although we work with all the security guarantees.”
This moment of pandemic does not seem to be an obstacle for people who come to the Bermillo Health Center. The first in the afternoon, Natividad Tamame, who arrives from Badilla where he lives now, although he has always been in Madrid and that is where he has donated for “many years”. Why are you a blood donor? “Donations are necessary, whenever they tell me I go and when I found out it could be done in Bermillo I didn’t think about it. We have to do our part because this saves lives ”.
There he is received by Isabel Carrera, an asset to the team in Sayago. This young mother, who lives in Torrefrades, is the one who spreads the arrival of the mobile hemodonation unit through the networks and through a WhatsApp group or hangs up the posters and every time the team comes to work helping with the delivery of the chips, the bottle of water or clarifying doubts. Thanks to Isabel’s efforts, the hemodonation team returned to Bermillo after a few years without traveling. An asset highly valued by the healthcare team and so involved that it does not fail in its three annual donations; now it has also donated plasma for the treatment of convalescents from coronavirus.
“I have been a donor since I was 18 years old, also my daughter has a little problem, she needs blood and I have been much more involved. But that was not the cause, in my family we are all donors ”. Isabel Carrera highlights the need for blood because “you yourself don’t know when you will need it, just like plasma or any organ”.
He believes in the cause so much that he does not hesitate to insist with his messages on social networks, to remember hours before the arrival of the team that potential donors drink a lot of water or not eat two hours before. “I do it so they don’t forget that they have to come and if we can get some more to cheer up, then better” says Isabel. “Not everyone collaborates like her, Bermillo is the only place where she is in charge of receiving the donor, giving him the wipes and sheets,” certifies Dr. Ramos. “Donating blood is a very simple thing and at the same time it helps so much… Many times if you do not have a close problem or some special reason it seems that we do not value it, there are people who say, I’ll go. Instead I take it as an obligation ”certifies Isabel Carrera.
“I tell people, it doesn’t hurt, nothing happens, it’s fast and in return it helps a lot, but I haven’t convinced anyone,” Natividad Tamame laments. Along with her, Marisa Pablo, comes from Villardiegua de la Ribera and is also a veteran of this cause. It started when, years ago, they did an analysis and found that his red blood cells were very high; “The doctor recommended that instead of taking anything, I became a donor.” For a long time he has done it in Zamora, occasionally in Moralina de Sayago when the team takes advantage of the village festivals to have reserves, and since the point of Bermillo was normalized, it comes to the Health Center. Do you have any concerns due to COVID? “I don’t even think about it, I totally trust that all the security measures are being met and also now more blood is needed” argues Marisa Pablo.
“Zamora is a generous province,” defends Dr. Ramos, with very unique cases such as Morales de Toro, which contributes the most blood in proportion to the population. “There are a lot of young people and for years they have been very psyched; it is the most supportive people ”. The effect of depopulation is also noted, especially in the western province. “In towns like Fermoselle we have noticed a lot, years ago many young people donated who have grown older and there is no replacement.”
But the reserves are guaranteed by volunteers such as Nazario Vega, a cattleman from Gáname, who has stopped working to go to donate as he has been doing for many years. Like Carlos Pascual, from Gamones, another asset who does not let go of his “obligation” every time the message arrives on his mobile. So up to 26 people, 26 bags of blood that are gold for hospitals.
– .
