Blood banks are the area where the blood is collected, stored, processed and supplied to those in need. In ancient times, people were not awarded of blood transfusion. They use to think that blood is the most important component of our body. Than in 1665, Richard lower conducted first blood transfusion between two dogs. This became successful. Then, others tried transfusing the blood from animals to humans, which went unsuccessful. Than in 1818, James, from Britain successfully transferred blood from husband (donor) to wife (acceptor).

But still, not all the cases were successful. Later, in 1901 Karl Landsteiner, born an Austrian who later became a physician, and the most important individual in the study of human blood transfusion, documented the first three human Blood groups (based on substances present on the red Blood cells), A, B and O. And fourth blood AB group was documented by A. Decastrello and A.sturli in 1902. Now when they were awarded of different types of blood groups than they also came to know about the reason why the earlier transfusions were sometimes successful and sometimes not. The first blood bank was organized at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital.

Irwin Memorial Blood Bank was the first community-based blood centre. It was established in San Francisco in 1941. Basic demand of blood banks was raised at the time of World War-II, when physicians saw the effectiveness of transfusion therapy. Dr. Charles helped supplying thousand units of blood to world war-II victims. The American Association of Blood Banks now known as the AABB, was originally formed to support, encourage and develop the practice for blood banks.

At the beginning of 1948 the American National Red Cross was able to operate blood program to collect and distribute blood to patients in need. In 1962, several communities joined hands together not to form a hobby or toy club but instead they started helping local hospitals, civic groups and medical centres to establish blood bank centres. And now as we all know that we have more than million blood banks all over the world. Many organizations like Red Cross and other NGOs help organizing blood donation camps in hospitals, schools or colleges to encourage all youngsters to donate blood. It should become easy with cell phones and all that texting that the youth do. Some even help vanish debt by selling blood platelets for a few dollars also

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Donating blood is a wonderful way to volunteer to serve your community. The blood you donate can be used to save lives in a variety of ways. Accidents, unexpected surgical emergencies, national disasters, and to help people with a variety of blood diseases, are just some of the reasons blood is needed. Blood donation is a safe and relatively painless procedure.

When you decide to donate, you will be asked some questions concerning your general health, weight and age. You must be at least 17 years old, 100 pounds, be in good health and free from any diseases such as HIV/AIDS or hepatitis. You can donate blood once every 56 days, as your body needs that amount of time to regenerate its red blood cells. If you only want to donate a component of blood called platelets, a much shorter waiting period is all that is necessary.

Platelets are generally needed for people being treated for leukemia and other forms of cancer. It takes only about 10-15 minutes for the actual donation process to be completed and approximately 1 pint of blood is taken per donation. Most people do not feel any effects after donating blood, but some may experience slight dizziness. Rest and replenishment of fluids is usually all that is needed if this occurs.

Afterwards, your blood is screened for transmissible diseases, and then typed for both blood type and RH factors. When this process is completed, your blood is stored and sent to hospitals or other facilities to be used as needed. Donating blood is a vital yet easy way to help those in need.

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