Blood donors provide lifesaving service during Christchurch’s time of need

On March 15^th 2019 New Zealand witnessed an unprecedented event unfolding in Christchurch. Less than one kilometre away from New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) Donor Centre in Addington, Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Mosque were scenes of a terror attack that shocked the world. 

Vascular specialist and member of the Christchurch Muslim community, Dr Adib Khanafer knows first-hand the impact our committed blood donors make to a life or death situation. 

On that day he operated on three separate victims in the immediate aftermath of the incident.  “In our line of work, we know bleeding. For most surgeries I need to be prepared to deal with around one or two units of blood loss. That day was different,” says Khanafer. “I cannot commend blood donors and New Zealand Blood Service enough to ensure we always have product on hand when it is needed.”

During that weekend, NZBS supplied 520 units of blood, plasma, and platelets to Christchurch Hospital. With the Christchurch Blood Bank just a short walk across Hagley Park, NZBS staff shuttled hundreds of units through police cordons to the ICU, and 230 units were urgently flown to Christchurch airport from donor centres in Auckland, Wellington, and Hamilton.

To say thank you to the 112,000 generous blood donors in New Zealand, Dr Khanafer joined NZBS and members of the Christchurch Muslim community at the Christchurch Donor Centre on World Blood Donor Day, 14^th June 2020.   They were also joined by some donors who had donated blood in the 35 days prior to the event (the shelf life of red blood cells), whose donations may have been used to save the lives of those in the Mosque shootings.

For Dr Khanafer, the rapid response from NZBS on that day and knowledge that the blood is always there when it’s needed is invaluable.  “It makes you realise that you take these things for granted, we just assume we will have enough blood on hand and we aren’t going to have an issue. I really raise my hat to the blood service, for always being there to support our work.”

Thanks to the regular donations from blood donors, NZBS has always been able to guarantee the supply of blood during an emergency. However, blood and blood products are used on a daily basis, so the need for blood is constant.

“[Blood] Transfusions are required on most of the operations we deal with”, says Khanafer. “90% of all patients will have a transfusion on the day of surgery, and others who may not require blood during surgery may become anaemic post-op so will still require blood.

“When patients do bleed, we can encounter rare blood groups, or people who need special products because of abnormalities in their blood. While not very common, these situations are increasing, but in over ten years, I have never had to cancel an emergency operation because what I needed from the blood service wasn’t available to me.”

It’s thanks to the country’s 112,000 registered blood donors that NZBS is able to continue to ensure blood is available when needed. To find out more about how you can donate blood or plasma, click here, or call 0800 GIVE BLOOD