I registered here as a blood donor, but what will happen if I am really ill in the hospital and can not take care of how and where to find a donor? My girlfriend can not log into DI forum, she is not stupid but not good using a computer at all. But - as all pinoys and pinays - she can use a (my) cell phone. Is it a good idea to have some contact numbers of blood donating and matching forum members on your phone so your partner knows whom to contact in case of emergency? I would give my cell phone number to every forum member I met in real life before, how about others? Are some of you already organized privately? Or is there a better idea?
You should try redcross in town (close to Kalinaw spa and Bethotel). I guess they have a database with contacts number.
I needed blood a couple years ago and it was a bit of a challenge. The red cross info on donors was quite limited. My wife contacted a friend that is a member of DI and another that is more active on the Cebu forum to send out the call. One thing I did not know at the time is that the negative blood types are a bit rare and with A negative blood it did take some time to find donors. From looking at Mr. Google, soon after my need, the folks most likely to have A negative blood are white with European descent. 20 years in the USAF donating a couple times a year no one ever mentioned that is was a bit rare. If I remember correctly, in the US only 6% of folks have A negative blood. In Asia the percentage is almost nil. Fortunately I was able to get a couple bags but that truly was due to the calls going out on this forum and the Cebu one. For the OP; best bet would be to have some expat friends that your GF could contact to get the word out. No one can predict when you would have a need for blood and being overseas only makes things more challenging. Shawn
Most Western countries represented by ex-pats here have between 6 and 7 percent A- (which is about the highest percentage in all populations of the world) and, as you said, it is about 0.1% for Filipinos. But, blood grouping is far more complex than the ABO and Rhesus antigen groups and I am not sure whether there is closer correlation or not of other antigens between Filipinos and foreigners most represented here. However, here are (rounded) percentage figures for O+/A+/B+/AB+ for the countries listed below: USA 37/36/8/3 UK 37/35/8/3 AU 40/31/8/2 PH 37/29/27/7 So those who are B+ may have relocated to the correct country! And not too bad for AB+.
It is also important to know what blood types you can receive (e.g. AB+ can receive all other blood, O- can only receive O-), see the graphic. The copyright of the graphic belongs to Hema Quebec ( https://www.hema-quebec.qc.ca/ ).
