[RBS] Response to Blood Drive complaint

[Yossi Klein]

Hi Moshe,
 
I'm Deborah Weisblatt and I chair the Beit Shemesh Blood Drive Committee. I'm sorry that you didn't have a positive experience at the drive. I would like to clarify a few things:
 
1) There are many conditions/restrictions that may prevent someone from donating blood. Some are known beforehand (younger than 17, weigh less than 50 kg, for example) and some are not. The other night, for example, one man came to donate. It turns out that he was in Ethiopia for three days and so MDA rejected him. Someone in the States who has been cancer-free for five years can give blood, but in Israel, if someone had cancer R"L, they may never give blood, even if they are cancer-free. It's almost impossible for me to anticipate every reason why someone would be rejected. This is why potential donors must fill out a form every time they come to donate and why MDA questions people before they're allowed to donate.
 
2) In EVERY email that I post to the lists before the drive (4 weeks before, 3 weeks before, 2 weeks before, 1 week before, day of the drive = total of 5 posts), I ALWAYS post a link to the Blood Drive Website where there is a FAQ link. (This is the line in my posts: WHO: Healthy adults ages 18 to 65 (17 with a parent's note). Other restrictions apply. For details, see our website at www.shemesh.co.il. Click the Teddy Bear!) I created the FAQ as a courtesy to everyone davka so they wouldn't "waste their time" by shlepping to the drive, only to be refused by MDA. This FAQ contains MOST (but not ALL) of the common issues that could prevent donation. I ALWAYS encourage people to look at the FAQ because there are too many issues for me to list and no one would read this list in an email post. (And, an email of such a length would probably be rejected by the moderators too!)
 
3) We're happy to give people rides (which I mention in the posts too!) so that no one has to spend money on a taxi. 
 
Although you spent time in England during the "mad cow" years and cannot donate blood in Israel, I hope that you can still encourage your friends and neighbors to come and save a life by donating blood. (And, when the Misrad HaBriyut eventually lifts this restriction, you're invited to the kiddush I plan to give in celebration - that we may finally get British blood!!!)
 
Kol Tuv,
Deb
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/pipermail/rbs/attachments/20130529/3e1d809f/attachment-0001.html>