May 2013, Vol 3, Issue 5

AATS: Single Dose of EPO Pre-Cardiac Op Cuts Need for Blood

Submitted by sankalp on

High dose of human recombinant erythropoietin two days pre-op benefits cardiac surgery patients

WEDNESDAY, May 8 (HealthDay News) -- A single high dose of human recombinant erythropoietin (HRE) administered two days before cardiac surgery is associated with reduced need for transfused blood, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, held from May 4 to 8 in Minneapolis.

Undue Panic

Handling blood requests at late hours in the night is not new for the Emergency Wing at Sankalp. 19th April 2013 was one such day.  We received A- SDP(Single Donor Platelet) request. 

The patient was suffering from dengue. When a person is affected by dengue, the platelets count usually decreases from lakhs to thousands. In this case, the count at that hour (at 11:30 PM) was less than 10,000 in the patient.  With such a low count, the patient side was informed to arrange two to three A- SDP units.  

Reflections - Looking back at the road we took

Submitted by sankalp on

Sankalp India Foundation did not take roots in a personal tragedy. It was not like someone faced an intense situation on a particular occasion and decided to do something. Sankalp was born as a result of the massive unrest that resides in us. The unrest which arises from the state of things around us. When we see the way the world works around us, with all it's imperfections, prejudice, injustice, corruption and so on, we do tend to get agitated. There is a small rebel inside us which wants a change.

On the World Thalassemia Day

I want to wish the little kids with thalassemia a happy day and I want to mean it too.

Today is the world thalassemia day. All over the world organisations and individuals are celebrating this occasion. It did occur to me that having been involved with thalassemia for 2 years now - maybe we too should celebrate this day.