I gave blood for the first time ever on Tuesday night.

Tuesday morning my next-door neighbour, Medine Teze, had a hip operation at the Mersin University Hospital. This operation required 4 units of blood. This hospital (and possibly, all Turkish Public Hospitals/Hospitals in general) requires the reciprocal giving of as many units of blood as used, So, I receive a phone call around 5 pm from Hanifi Amca (Medine’s husband) asking me if I can blood. I was glad to be able to help my wonderful neighbours.

At the hospital the beautiful medical worker asked me some questions before she could proceed with the blood taking. I understood most of it. About diseases, fear of needles (the demonstration Hanifi Amca gave to explain this question was quite comical but effective), past sexual habits, general health matters and other expected questions. The woman first inserted the needle into my left forearm vein to take a sample. After the sample was taken and analysed, she injected the needle into the same position on my right arm. This second needle took just under 500 ml of blood, the size of one unit. I rediscovered that my blood was of the O+ variety. Following the donation I was made to relax on the bed for a while and drink peach nectar and eat biscuits (for the sugar). Medine’s daughter, Handan Abli, provided these supplements. All in all, the procedure took about 30 minutes.

As blood giving is extremely important and beneficial to the community and takes little time, it is something I will strongly consider doing on a regular basis in the future. I hope I can help many other people needing blood transfusions,

Give blood!