JOM-DERMA-ORGAN: Make blood and organ donation fashionable and trendy

By Mansor bin Puteh

I went to the National Blood Bank at Jalan Tun Razak again on the afternoon of 24 December, 2007, as I would every two weeks, to donate blood for the 259th time.

And while lying on the bed, I had a few thoughts and related ideas on how the government should do in order to further encourage more Malaysians to donate or pledge their organs. I am eager to return to the blood bank in the first week of January next year to donate for the 260th time. It will be less than two years or at the end of 2009 before I will be donating for the 300th time, which is a very significant number.

It was a long time ago when I first started to donate blood at the Universiti Hospital in Petaling Jaya, after agreeing to follow Alex my Chinese Form Six classmate at a private school in Petaling Jaya on his motorcycle, who had already done it few times.

For those who are not familiar, platelet and plasma are not red but yellowish-orange in color and the extraction procedure takes from forty minutes to one and a half hours, as opposed to the ten minutes one takes to donate full blood because the machine has to filter out the platelet and/or plasma from the blood.

And for all this I have so far been given a collared tee-shirt, few tie-pins that have the number of blood donated as souvenirs and a blood bank book that allows me to get free medical treatment at any government hospital or clinic, and not much else. But I will keep going to the blood bank as a routine, for as long as I am healthy enough to offer my ‘O+’ blood to the anonymous recipients.

Yes, despite being a regular and serial donor in this, I still feel the pain each time they prick into my arm, which I alternate on each trip there so that it doesn’t scar that much.

I could have donated more than 400 times if I had not stopped the habit for ten years, because I was living abroad and was constantly on the move and could not find any hospital in the neighborhood where I was at then to see how they do it there and also to continue donating blood as I thought it was a good habit of the Renaissance Man. So I never got the chance to donate in any of the thirty-three countries I had visited.

Unlike the others, I take blood donation as a good ‘social and cultural as well as artistic activity and physical exercise’ including a diversion from my everyday routine. This is a very post-Modern concept and philosophy which no university anywhere in the world teaches.

I feel relieved and rejuvenated each time the procedure ends and I am stuck at having to press the cotton swap over the wound for a few minutes before a plaster is placed on it, like I had just done something good to anyone and especially to myself knowing that my blood pressure and organs are okay since they take tests to determine they were okay before anyone could donate any blood.

Each time I make a donation, I spend half a day, traveling there and back and about two hours at the blood bank. And since it is just across the street from the National Art Gallery, I always make it a point to see the latest exhibits on display and often got to attend openings of new exhibitions and meet people in the artistic community there. I also go to their library to read books and the day’s newspapers and magazines that they have on the shelves.

Not surprisingly, despite being supposedly high-flown in philosophy, art, culture and sociology, I have not seen anybody from the artistic and literary community and the film industry coming to donate blood, except for Accapan, whom I used to see, but not lately.

None of the painters and politicians on both sides of the divide is seen at the blood bank.

Only the minister of health and his senior staff are seen anywhere at the blood bank. It is mostly during the National Blood Donors’ Day when they would show their faces there. I also seldom see medical doctors, intellectuals, police personnel, members of the legal professions and the Bar Council, SUHAKAM, HAKAM, Malaysian Medical Associations (MMA), human rights activists, leaders of the NGOs or anyone from the universities and corporate leaders and especially the members of parliament and cabinet.

I suppose they’d rather offer the unsolicited views on anything but not their blood.

Why ask the public to gather at Dataran Merdeka and hold a candlelight vigil? Why now ask them to come to the blood bank and make a donation sometime? Why spill blood on the road and not donate it at the blood bank instead?

And where are the Tuns, Tan Sris, Datuks, and other honorable national personalities, and religious elders of all faiths, too? Their absence has never failed to make me feel like a superior human being that I am not.

And where are the ‘media heroes of the land’ – those who had swam across the English Channel, sailed around the world, trekked on ice to the Poles and our national athletes so forth? How come they are not donating blood or their organs? To me they are mere media heroes and not real heroes! They are supposed to be physically fit, so why can’t they come and donate blood, too? I know because there is no glamour in it.

Of course you don’t expect the bikers and Mat Rempits to come and donate their blood at the blood bank; they’d rather spill it on the roads, and get some from people like us regular donors anytime without being thankful for!

So those who donate blood seem to be the ordinary Mat, Chong and Samy like me; although often times I had been made to feel lost in the group of blood donors because of my different background and appearance that has never failed to create the doctors suspicious of my social activities, when they look at my shoulder-length hair that has of late started to rub onto my back.

This is opposed to drinking, smoking and do the pub crawl and meeting with friends till late at night at some entertainment joints like what many other people do for which they had to incur huge financial expenses, and flashing smiles that are mostly fake and getting into discourses for the fun of it and not achieving anything other than to lose oneself in the charade of modern living while inhaling second hand smoke including germs and viruses from those who might be suffering from lung cancer and other diseases that had not become too apparent.

I had also tried to do such things in the distant past and found it outrageous being surrounded by many people who like to put out false fronts and presenting someone who is not themselves, especially if they are in awe with things Western, and for all the wrong reasons. If they had lived in the West especially to study, then they can be said to be suffering from a cultural hangover. On the other hand, if those who had never been to the West, even for a day, then they could be charged for being influenced by the media.

From what I can see, the only thing that the government is doing now is to distribute catalogues and forms inviting the public to donate their organs. Out of the thousands that were distributed, only a handful were returned.

There is a negative effect on the psychology when a person signs the form. He will feel like he is giving away his organs and that he is walking around without them. He is not important and he is useless as a living person. He is better dead than alive – which may be a fact.

Worse, when it is stated that the organs are only taken from them in the advent of their death; this certainly does not make any potential donor feel at ease, like the ministry and agency concerned are constantly ‘praying’ for them to die soon because they would then be seen to be contributing something to the society which they cannot do while they are still alive.

There must be other ways for the government to encourage the public to pledge their organs so that they do not feel threatened, and especially when they have to carry their cards with them and be constantly reminded that they are better dead than alive.

It is also ironic and cynical when one thinks how organ donors have to die, in order to save another person, and the person who gets his organ or organs suddenly become celebrated like he has done a miracle, while the donor is conveniently neglected.

The recent case of a fourteen-year-old girl who had received a heart from a donor, is a strong case in point. So far she has not indicated her willingness to thank and see the parents of the heart donors who had saved her life from misery and possible death. She is too keen to meet a female singer who had not done anything to ease her medical problems!

Somehow, her smile looks eerie to me, the more they profile her in the media.

Why can’t the media leave her alone so she can return to normal private life effortlessly without being trust in unnecessary spotlight beyond publishing what is necessary; and especially if she is not from a wealthy family and who depends on the charity of others? It will be difficult for her to go about her private life, if she is not left alone. Did she help sell the newspapers? If so, then the papers ought to pay for some of her medical expenses, too, for having benefited from her medical problems!

The more the media asks her things, the more she will spout nonsense, like asking to be treated like a queen, by saying weird things except for being grateful. Why can’t she just ask the media to say she wants international artistes to come to see her? She won’t do that because she knows it would be difficult; so she had to settle for a local artiste instead which could be done easily.

Why must a person in desperate need of a heart be given ‘celebrity status’, I don’t know, when the attention should be on the medical team that had succeeded in performing the surgery. But this did not happen as the patient got all of it.

In fact, she got not one, but two hearts; the first one belonging to a Malay man which her body had rejected and the other a Chinese. Hasn’t the medical experts been fairly curious to find out if there is a good reason why the heart of a Malay was rejected by the Chinese patient to see if they are not compatible considering that Muslims do not consume pork, and if the rejection of the organ is because of that, so in future we do not have to waste priceless organs this way.

(By the way, this is not an emotional matter; it is purely a scientific and medical matter that should be treated seriously.)

There is the major mental block that the government has to erase from the minds of the potential donors before they can see results and get many more members of the public to pledge their organs. Few others had offered their organs by signing the forms but it was done by sheer bravado.

Those who have filled the forms are not necessary people whom the relevant agencies or ministry may be fully aware of concerning their medical history. There are no screening or medical tests done on them to see if they are fit to offer their organs. Some of them may not be good donors and it is good to tell them that their lifestyle is the reason for their application to be rejected.

What I am suggesting here is for the ministry of health to form an association of organ donors, so those who had pledged their organs can become its members.

The only requirement for those who wish to join this association is for them to pledge their organs by filling in the forms.

From this exercise we will be able to show the profile of organ donors in the country if they are mostly people who are in the lower income bracket or those from all walks of life and economic as well as social groups and what sort of social and cultural activities they take part in their everyday life, if they have a healthy lifestyle. Or if they are amongst those who are often profiled in fancy magazines wearing expensive jewelry and clothes and talk about holidaying abroad with their brood.

This association can be activated so that they organize functions and activities, much like those that are often done by other associations that mostly aim to take the public away from healthy living.

This association I am talking about can become an interesting one as opposed to the hundreds of associations that often-times do not promote healthy living. It won’t be long before this association can become better known and accepted and become an international movement like scouting.

Those who join it will be seen to be people of a certain caliber and standing in society. In fact, some priorities and advantages can be given to them when they have a need to apply for anything – to study, apply a scholarship, including be given rebates on some public services or utilities, etc.

I am sure if such an association is formed, organ donation can become ‘fashionable’ and even ‘trendy’. Whatever stigma that is still attached to this exercise can be erased completely, so that organ donation can be more widely accepted. It can even be inculcated as a habit.

The government should also consider giving those who had pledged their organs some real and tangible benefits to encourage the others to be donors. It is often said the value of the organs cannot be valued, yet, those who have pledged their organs do not seem to be appreciated.

Blood donors get certain benefits in the form of free first class medical treatment at any government hospital or clinic throughout the country after donating forty times. It is not that those who get such benefits would want to get sick so that they can enjoy them. The idea is for them to get well fast so that they can resume donating blood.

Not many blood donors have any need to utilize these benefits.

If organ donors can also be given similar benefits, it will go down well with the public and those who are reluctant to pledge their organs will be less so, and they will do it with pride.

As it is now, there is no pride in becoming a blood or organ donor. And those who have donated blood or pledged their organs are not seen as exemplary citizens of the country or humanists. This is as opposed to those who donate money and other goods by carrying giant mock-up checks to show to the public, which may just be a ploy to evade having to pay income or company taxes.

In fact, when the Blood Bank holds their annual Blood Day, the media hardly covers it. They are less reluctant to cover and over-publicize artistic and cultural activities that are definitely not healthy where junk food is served and people are forced to stand for hours on end just to see the same group of singers and musicians perform their tired numbers and be in awe of their talents, although many are not aware that they are those who can never take their acts abroad and have only performed mostly in free concerts which are heavily subsidized by the major corporations and companies, which in turn get to promote their products and services in exchange for the sponsorship. It is always easier to organize the JomHeboh outdoor fun fairs and concerts than JomDermaDarahdanOrgan.

The media prefer to highlight those who had won singing contests and never those who had donated blood the most. And those youths who ‘misbehave’ are given prominence than those who practice a healthy lifestyle.

It doesn’t take much talent for a person to sing. But it takes decades and good health and discipline before one can donate more than 200 times.

It is also useful for those who have pledged their organs be given certain exemptions in income tax and other benefits.

If the government or the ministry of health only uses campaigns to encourage the public to become organ and blood donors, it won’t be very effective. There must be ingenuity in dealing with the matter; otherwise, it won’t be effective.