150 blood donations in almost 53 years: Otto Thoma from Häuser is an exception at the blood donation days. The 71-year-old made a sign for his donation to the Fürstabt-Gerbert School in St. Blasien – but the DRK local association did not overlook the anniversary.
In 1969 he decided to donate blood for the first time, Thoma remembers. In the first few years you had to hold your arm up and support yourself, that’s a thing of the past. In the beginning, a plaster was stuck to the puncture site, but in later years there were plasters and bandages – today the arm is only bandaged, says Thoma.
Not much has changed since he donated blood. The blood test remained the same. As a blood donor, “you can help people and you get a free blood test at the same time. I like that. And if something is found, the family doctor receives information,” says the donor, who also praises the appointments introduced because of the corona pandemic. In the past, if you wanted to donate blood, you sometimes had to wait up to two hours, Thoma recalls. Now he books an appointment online, comes at the specified time and everything goes quickly. So you save a lot of time.
In recent years, the number of blood donors has increased for a while, but there has been less surgery, said a worker at the blood transfusion service. In the meantime, life has returned to normal, which is also reflected in the decline in donations. At the same time, a lot of operations are going on again, many postponed interventions have been and will be made up for. Blood donations are therefore urgently needed, emphasizes the representative of the blood donation service.
It is clear to Otto Thoma that he will continue to do something about the lack of blood supplies. He is convinced that the half liter of blood he gives is an important donation. He, too, could one day be dependent on a blood supply for a planned operation or an emergency. So he will donate several times a year as long as it is possible. Otto Thoma knows that the day before his 73rd birthday is the last chance to do so.
155 people wanted to donate blood at the most recent appointment in the Fürstabt-Gerbert-Schule, in fact 148 donations were accepted, informed Ulrich Egge from the DRK local association St. Blasien, whose members support the blood donation service on such campaign days. “It was very pleasing that 23 first-time donors came to the appointment,” he said appreciatively.
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