Only in Africa and living on a hospital ship does one get called at 9:30pm to give blood for a patient that is in surgery and has been in surgery all afternoon. I was asked if I was available to give blood right now and of course I was more than willing. When I arrived to the ship I was really excited that I was going to be able to give blood, since I am not allowed in the US due to living overseas during the Mad Cow era. Because we are a ship in the middle of West Africa we do not have a blood supply that we can go to, so when a patient needs blood the lab turns to the crew. So they took my 500ml of blood and immediately took it to the OR where a 41 year old man was having a facial tumor removed and in need of blood. I do not know a lot of details about the patient, but we are able to meet and hang out with the blood recipients. I hope to make it to the ward today or tomorrow and meet my blood recipient. Just another day on the Africa Mercy.
how neat jamie!
ReplyDeletevery cool! so worth getting stuck with a needle!
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome girl! What a neat thing to be able to do and then to be able to meet who got your blood on top of it. Fun to keep up with you on here. We got our camera up and working so we will post a blog soon...stay tuned for some good pics!
ReplyDeleteMiss you girl,
Katie