The Taiwan Blood Services Foundation said yesterday that much of the blood donated in Taiwan is unusable because of elevated lipid levels.
Foundation staffer Chen Shih-li (陳世利) said the percentage of “fatty blood” collected by the foundation in the last three years has been steadily climbing — from 3.7 percent in 2008 to 4.7 percent last year, to 8.8 percent reported from January to April this year.
Recipients of such blood can end up with clogged arteries, which can lead to other serious complications, Chen said.
PHOTO: CNA
At times, the foundation is forced to dispose of entire bags of donated blood, he said, urging donors to adhere to a low-fat diet and to avoid eating prior to making their donations.
At a carnival yesterday in Taipei held to mark World Blood Donor Day, which is today, veteran donor Judy Wang, 50, said she had given blood more than 50 times since her first donation 30 years ago when she was a high school student.
“I make sure I am always in good health because I want to make sure the blood I donate is usable. If I am going to get pricked by a needle every three months, I want to be certain that my blood won’t get tossed away,” she said.
One of her relatives had to have a blood transfusion before, Wang said, adding that it had strengthened her motivation to keep donating because “you never know who you will end up helping.”
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
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