It is said that giving life or taking life is in the hands of GOD but you can save a life by giving your blood. Blood donation for social cause is an activity which give immense pleasure to the donor for saving someone life. Though donation of blood can be found in the religious text of many civilizations but the observable blood transfusion started after the discovery of blood groups in 1901 by Karl Landsteener. Generally the blood content of body varies with person to person and depends on body weight. A normal healthy person has around 5.5 liters of blood and can donate 350-450 ml of blood depending on his weight.

Why Blood Transfusion Needed:

Millions of patients need blood transfusion in the hospitals due to many reasons. The reasons that required blood transfusion include

1. Substitution of blood loss caused by any injury in accident
2. Substitution of blood loss that occurs during major surgeries.
3. Medical condition like anemia, kidney disease or cancer in which body’s ability to produce new blood cells weakens.

Who can Donate Blood?

There are some specific requirements that a donor must have before he can donate his blood. These specific requirements include:

• The donor must be above 18 years and below 55 years old.
• The donor blood pressure, temperature and weight must be normal.
• The donor must have normal hemoglobin count in blood generally more than 12.5gm/dl.
• He should not have any illness like hepatitis, malaria, measles and syphilis.
• The donor should not be on any kind of medication.
• The donor should not have suffered from jaundice from last 2-3 years.
• Pregnant women or women who are on lactation should not donate blood as they have low iron reserves.
• The donor should not have any history of epilepsy, abnormal bleeding tendency, severe asthma or cardiovascular disorders.

These are some facts that you must know about blood donation.