By Gennike Mayers, IFRC, in Haiti
Dr Robert Norris, a Medicorps volunteer, rushed into the Haitian National Red Cross Society blood transfusion station. "I need a unit of O- for a 36-year-old woman with a gunshot wound. She's being treated just up the road. She's paralysed, has anaemia and needs blood badly. Please can you help?"
Dr Eddy Gedeon, chief doctor at the Haitian State University Hospital outpatient clinic where the Red Cross blood transfusion station is temporarily located, immediately responded: "Yes, we have blood. Come inside."
Laboratory technicians Abdias Charlotin and Josiane Bourdeau quickly process the necessary paperwork, and also prepare the blood pouch and transfusion tubes. Pericles Jean-Baptiste, Haitian Red Cross communications manager, accompanied Dr Norris to see his patient Vierge Jeny, who had been shot in the arm by a trespasser who entered her property after its perimeter wall crumbled in the 12 January earthquake.
Blood donors
Before the earthquake, 65 per cent of the blood distributed in Haiti was supplied by some 20,000 Haitian Red Cross volunteer blood donors.
Much of the blood used to help people injured in the earthquake has come from a group of young donors known as Club 25. Created in 2006, Club 25 now has 4,000 members who give blood regularly - one pouch every four months for men, and one every three months for women.
Club 25 donor Estimé Valencia, aged 21, has been giving blood to the Haitian Red Cross for two years. "I was supposed to give in December but I decided to save my blood as a gift for the special blood donation drive organized at carnival time, because during that period there are often accident victims," she says.
Saving lives
"Giving blood gives young people thea sense of belonging, knowing that their gift saves lives."
Unfortunately because of the earthquake, that annual blood donation drive has been cancelled. However, the Haitian Red Cross still needs donations in order to maintain an adequate supply of all blood types.
Panu Saaristo, a health delegate with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said: "It's important to restore the Haitian National Red Cross Society's capacity to supply blood, because it is their mandate to provide this service for the entire country."
Roobens Decayette, aged 20, has given blood four times since he joined Club 25.
"My cousin used to give blood, and that's how I found out about Club 25," he says. "Now I give one pouch every four months. It takes no more than 15 minutes - but it goes a long way."