THE LARGEST SUMMER VOLUNTARY BLOOD DONATION CAMPAIGN IN SOUTH SERBIA

12. August 2014.

Bujanovac – Blood reserves are usually reduced in summer, due to which patients’ operations are postponed. A thousand units of blood per day are needed in Serbia, while the Vranje hospital needs about 15 of them. In case of emergencies, twice more blood is needed.

That is why the largest voluntary blood donation activity in South Serbia is traditionally organized every summer in the village of Rakovac, which is located in the municipality of Bujanovac.

Around 120 units of blood were collected during the most recent voluntary blood donation activity. The donors included the employees of “Bivoda”, “Telecom”, the Police Department in Vranje, soldiers, volunteers of the Red Cross branch office in Bujanovac and the villagers themselves.

On this occasion, Milan Zivkovic, MD, from the Military Medical Academy (MMA), said:” It is always a problem in the summer months, but we deal with it and solve it, so that there aren’t any particular difficulties with providing medical care and treatment or with performing surgeries”.

Bivoda, in cooperation with other companies, the police and the army, organizes the voluntary blood donation activity for the sixth time. Thanks to these activities, over 300 units of blood have been collected so far.

On the occasion of the voluntary blood donation campaign, Dejan Ilic, Director of Bivoda, said: “There are more and more blood donors every year, which means that people want to help, to give blood and save someone’s life, while we just need to stimulate them".

Predrag Stankovic, from Telecom’s association “From the Heart”, said that the association covered the whole territory of Serbia, as well as that the greatest number of units of blood was collected in South Serbia.

The blood transfusion office in Vranje stated that they had a sufficient number of blood units of all blood groups and that they didn’t expect any shortages, since blood was continuously collected in such campaigns, which are organized several times a year, sometimes even twice a month.

Source: RTS1 and Coordination Body