Sardinia is anemic, and to deny it blood is the Covid-19 pandemic: many donors are infected, so the island lacks blood not only for transfusions to thalassemics, but also for surgical interventions and this emergency, which is it's been getting worse since June last year, it's weighing too much. Moreover, those who have always given blood to us - that is, regions such as Piedmont and Lombardy, but there are others - in turn have to deal with insufficient stocks and therefore have cut off part of the supplies on the island. A closed agreement with Friuli Venezia Giulia will bring 1,500 bags of blood a year to Sardinia and this is comforting, but the fact remains that Piedmont alone is cutting us five thousand. Considering that on the island there are 1,200 thalassemics (including hundreds of children) who need two or three bags every 15-20 days, and sometimes they have to settle for one and then re-challenge their fate a few days later, the operating rooms are blocked .
The reserve light
They know this well in hospitals, for example at the Arnas Brotzu in Cagliari, which has an important transfusion center: "The blood supplies are in reserve", sighs Giuseppe Dessì, director of the Emergency-Urgency and Orthopedics-Traumatology department at San Michele, the company's lead hospital, "and as everywhere we are privileging emergencies, especially road traumas, which are not predictable." Maria Antonina Sebis, who chairs the Thalassa Action non-profit organization from Arbus, says it without filters: «A disaster, we are back to the situation of forty years ago. Several of us happen to show up in hospitals for transfusion and be rejected because they don't have bags, so we have to try again the next day: it's inhumane ". Sebis talks about the difficult situation throughout Italy: "The National Blood Center confirms this in a press release, as well as the cut in supplies from other regions."
The causes of the discomfort
But why is there no blood? The problems are different, first of all the fact that donors are discouraged: they fear that, in the Covid-19 pandemic, going to perform the act of altruism is too complicated due to the rules of access to hospitals. "If only this", Vincenzo Dore, regional president of Avis and mayor of Torralba is discouraged: "The fact that many donors are positive for Covid hinders the collection, and that is why the emergency is national. Furthermore, there are no longer doctors for bloodmobiles, so we have to reduce the outgoings: free doctors are no longer free since they recruited them in vaccination centers or hospitals ", adds Dore," and finding all those needed for bloodmobiles is complex".
And at this point the president of Thalassa action breaks in again: «Why the Region», Sebis asks, «does not organize an awareness campaign to donate blood, considering that we are in an emergency? And why are transfusion centers like that of Brotzu closed on Saturdays and Sundays, that is, on the days when donors are free from work? If the blood does not collect, do not be surprised if there are no stocks ».
(Unioneonline)
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