Life Stories, Local Community

Heart of God Church on Lianhe Zaobao: Joint Blood Donation Drive – A Story3 min read

Heart of God Church member and donor at the Joint Blood Donation Drive, Dr Chloe shared her story with Lianhe Zaobao. Scroll to the bottom for a translation of the article!

TRANSLATION

When Chloe was in primary school, her cousin suddenly required a massive blood transfusion during an emergency operation. That left a deep impression on Chloe and she decided that when she finally has the ability to, she would donate blood regularly. Chloe said, the only exception would be if I don’t fulfil the requirements for blood donation, otherwise so long as I am physically able, I will make it a point to donate blood to help others.

Many years ago, Chloe’s cousin underwent an emergency operation and she needed a massive blood transfusion for it. Chloe Teo (aged 31, General Practitioner) was too young at the time to donate blood but that experience helped her see the importance of blood donation. After that time, she made a decision that she would regularly donate blood in service of others.

During the interview, Chloe described how when she was in primary school, her cousin suddenly required a massive blood transfusion during an emergency operation. All her other family members donated blood, and she was the only one who could not since she did not meet the minimum age requirement at the time.

“That experience left a deep impression on me, from then on, I decided that when I was finally able to, I would regularly donate blood.”

Following that, she went abroad for further study, and she returned to Singapore to start work in 2011. She turned words into action by donating blood for the first time during her internship at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

Due to the nature of her work, Chloe would often see many cases of illnesses that require a blood transfusion, which showed her how crucial blood donation is. She pointed out that for cases of surgery patients needing a blood transfusion, generally at least 6-10 bags of blood would be used. “I would often need to call the blood bank to ask them to provide more blood but the bank, due to high demand and low supply, needed to be prudent in providing blood bags. This made me realise how precious a single bag of blood is.”

Figures from the Singapore Red Cross show that due to age-related illnesses, the number of regular blood donors drops by approximately 600 people every year. The number of young donors also fall annually.

As a healthy young adult, Chloe wants to donate blood even more regularly but because of how hectic her work is it is difficult for her to find the time, so she can only donate blood once a year. Regardless, she makes it a point to put in whatever effort she can.

“Unless I fail to fulfil the blood donation requirements, that would be a completely different matter. But so long as I am physically able to, I will definitely donate blood to help others.”