Tom Chen (陳建嘉) still shakes with fear at the sight of needles, but looking at the track marks on his arm you wouldn’t know it.
“When I see the doctor, sometimes they think I’m a drug addict,” Chen quips.
The 55-year-old Taipei resident is, however, addicted to something else: visiting a blood center every four weeks to donate blood, which involves inserting a needle into his arm for up to two hours. As of last month, he has donated 450 units of platelets at a rate of two units per visit. By comparison, blood donors can only contribute one unit every two months.
Photo courtesy of Tom Chen
“My figures are not that impressive. There’s probably a couple hundred of us,” he says, wasting no time naming three people who have exceeded 1,000 donated platelet units.
What started as a desire to do something good following the death of his father (which had nothing to do with blood donation), has become an integral part of Chen’s life, volunteering twice a week at the Guandu Blood Donation Room. It additionally makes him health conscious, as a simple cold can result in him being unable to donate.
“There are things that society can do without, but blood isn’t one of them,” Chen says. “So I can’t let anything happen to my body. When I can’t donate, it not only disrupts my routine, I start worrying that there’s something wrong with my health.”
Photo: Hsieh Chia-chang, Taipei Times
YOUNG DONORS NEEDED
People like Chen contribute to Taiwan having the highest rate of blood donation in the world — 74.9 per 1,000 people, according to a Taiwan Blood Services Foundation (TBSF) report. A 2016 WHO report, which doesn’t include Taiwan, has Germany at the top with 50 per 1,000 people.
Tu Wen-ching (杜文靖), a spokesperson for TBSF, says that the country has experienced a drastic turnaround from the early days where hospitals relied on “professional” blood donors, also known as blood cows (血牛). The practice of selling blood was banned in 1987. By 1991, five percent of the population were donating blood, a number that rose to over eight percent in 2011, but since then has steadily declined.
TBSF points to a strong social campaign promoting voluntary blood donations in the 1970s and 80s involving celebrities, politicians, military units and medical associations as an important factor in Taiwan’s high rates.
However, Chen laments that young people today are less likely to donate, noting that the first time he donated blood was during college with a group of friends. Last October, TBSF reported that blood donations by young adults have decreased by about 40 percent over the past decade, mainly because of lifestyle changes and their habitual consumption of caffeinated beverages, which affects the body’s iron absorption rate. Some overprotective parents also discourage their children from donating blood, according to TBSF.
People over the age of 65 are not allowed to donate without a doctor’s approval, and 70 is the absolute cut off age. An aging society means fewer donors and more people requiring blood, and Chen tries to convince any young person he comes across to join the ranks. His daughter has donated three times so far.
Chen says that while hospitals know how much blood they need per day, they still have to keep at least seven days’ worth in reserve. In May, this number dipped to 4.3 days, with O-type down to 3.7 days, which Chen says is very alarming.
“People ask me if it hurts. Sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it’s bad. And I’m scared everytime I see the needle,” Chen says. “But I encourage everyone to try.”
The platelet donation that Chen does is a different story. Platelets are used to form blood clots, which are not only useful in case of serious injury, but also can help cancer patients, who generally suffer from a low platelet count, and those with blood disorders and transplants.
Chen says platelets are always in demand, since they can only be stored for five days. However, due to the time and cost of each extraction, he needs to get his blood pressure, height and weight measured as well as a blood test before each donation, the kind of arduous tasks that decrease the number of potential donors. Also, not many people have the time or patience to sit still for two hours, compared to a blood donation which takes at most 20 minutes. Consequently hospitals rely on faithful donors for platelets.
“I see familiar faces quite often at the blood room,” Chen says.
MONTHLY PRIVILEGE
Chen learned about platelet donation in 2004 when he received an award for donating 30 units of blood. He noticed that some recipient numbers were in the hundreds, and wondered how that was possible.
His father had died earlier that year, and he suddenly had this urge to do more to help society.
“Since I didn’t have much money at the time, I felt the easiest thing to do was donate blood. But I can only donate two units every three months, which wasn’t enough,” he says.
He started donating platelets every two weeks, but as he got older, his wife convinced him to cut down to once per month.
Due to all the health screening and requirements for platelet donation, his endeavor has drastically changed his lifestyle. He recalls being turned away once for having high white blood cell count, and that night he came down with a severe headache.
About two years ago, Chen failed the tests for fat levels in his blood, forcing him to improve his diet.
“For people like us, if we can’t donate, we get very anxious,” he says.
From then on, he watched what he ate and would eat especially light meals the day before he was to donate, keeping a diet of breads, soy milk, crackers and vegetable-and-fruit smoothies.
“You can’t just think about how many times you donate blood — the point is donating usable blood,” he says. “Platelet donors get checked before they donate, but blood donors don’t. People shouldn’t hide their conditions, otherwise their blood will go to waste. Don’t try to be a hero when you can’t.”
Chen hikes and bikes frequently, and every month’s donation is like a health checkup that gives him peace of mind.
“If you want to live long, you have to live well too,” he says. “I don’t want to give all the money I earned to the hospital. And blood donation — it’s a responsibility, it’s also a privilege.”
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would