Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Omkara]

There is a young foreigner in Busan named Amber (23) who needs O negative blood (ONLY 1 in 15 people have this type) ... FAST
This girl will DIE without blood.

What you could do:

1. Go to the hospital (phone number below) any time.
Go to the 3rd floor to the blood bank and get tested. Even if you have the same blood type you will still have to have a test to check platlets. Then once all is well you will have to return to donate the blood.

2. If you have a blood bank near you go there and tell them about Amber and which hospital she is in they will phone and confirm and then you can donate.

Hospital number: 051- 890-6114 & Blood Bank: 051-890-6644

[seoulteacher]

Good job, OP - I hope & pray that your efforts bear fruit - that Amber gets the blood donations she urgently needs.

I'd drop everything to donate for her - but I'm not in ROK.
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Incidentally, if this is new to you...
donating blood is a straightforward process
- and its really not uncomfortable..and ONLY YOU can do it:

i) whenever I've donated (8 or 9 times), I've done so while lying comfortably on a cot.

ii) And I even remember the Cdn Red Cross once giving me a shot of whiskey afterwards (or is that just my fertile imagination acting up? ). But my memory of their another time sending me a letter thanking me is real: they'd called and said that it was an emergency and that they'd send a taxi for me. I took the bus; it wasn't that far (while at univ in Windsor, ONT).

They will, I'm sure, give you something to drink (maybe orange juice?) afterwards.

iii) I can sometimes get a bit queasy thinking about donating, but I usually look away and just lie there, because I prefer to not actually see the torniquet, etc. - but its painless, and its just a matter of being there.

iv) it only takes 15-20 mins, far as I remember. (Sorry, its been almost 10 years since I've donated. Because I spent several months in the UK in 1990 and 1994, Canada won't allow me to donate anymore - I checked again a couple months ago. Some concern or other about Mad Cow or some such in the UK, apparently. But UKers/sojourners there, ROK may not have such a restriction).

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You know, donating blood is such a critical thing and, when its needed, it can be so urgent, that I've previously wondered if ESL teachers should set up some sort of
voluntary register of blood donors (*): foreign & Korean donors, by blood type, who'd be willing to donate at a moment's notice.

(*) = I say this because patients in need of blood - whether facing elective surgery or, more-urgently, as a result of an accident, say - often look to friends and relatives to donate; but the vast majority of foreigners in Korea would not have much of a network close at hand. I am a 'garden variety donor': O+, the most common blood type (38% in the US). But when a patient has a rare blood type, like AB- (1%), matching donors to recipients on a timely basis becomes far more critical.

Amber, hope you get lots of donors!

[Bread]

[Ya-ta Boy]

If someone could figure out how to use the search function, there are at least 2 threads on here with names of at least 10 people who have O- blood. I tried and can't get it to work.

I'm pumped full of antihystemines so I can't donate.

[Chamchiman]

[Bread]

[valkyrian2]

being discussed here:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=135956&highlight=amber