Over 2,500 People Gave Blood in Donor Tents This Year

This summer, the donor tents of the Blood Centres of the North Estonia Medical Centre and Tartu University Hospital and the Blood Service of Pärnu Hospital were visited by 2528 people, who gave over 1137 litres of blood in total. The friendly donor family was joined by 422 first-time donors.

“This year’s hot summer treated our donor tents to both sunshine and gales. On two occasions – in Paide in August and Pärnu in September – we even had to move to replacement indoor facilities due to bad weather. Despite unpredictable weather, our cheerful yellow tents were visited by 3070 people, 2528 of whom had the opportunity to do good as donors, and largely thanks to the helpful and positive people who gave their blood in these tents, we were able to help all of the patients who needed a blood transfusion,” said Dr Riin Kullaste, Director of the Medical Centre’s Blood Centre, adding that: “We are particularly happy about the positive feedback received from donors who visited the tents and smooth cooperation with our partners from the Rescue Board, the Defence Forces and the Defence League and the fact that our tents in Viljandi were the most visited tents for the third consecutive year, resulting in this summer’s record – on 8 August, a total of 175 upstanding residents of Viljandi County donated their blood in our tent!”.

This summer, the donor tents of the Blood Centre of the North Estonia Medical Centre stopped in Tallinn, Rakvere, Keila, Paide, Rapla and Haapsalu, hosted 1483 donors over 12 days (216 of whom were first-time donors) and collected a total of 667 litres of blood.

The donor tents of the Blood Centre of Tartu University Hospital were put up on the Town Hall Square in Tartu and the Freedom Square in Viljandi. Over four days, a total of 577 people donated their blood in the tents of two cities, of whom 126 were first-time donors. A total of 260 litres of blood was collected.

The Pärnu Hospital’s Blood Service tents were put up in the Summer Capital in May and September. Over four days, 468 people gave blood – 80 of whom did it for the first time in their lives – donating a total of 210 litres of blood.

Dr Riin Kullaste reiterates to all healthy people who care about themselves and others: “Despite that the successful conclusion of our donor tent summer, we invite everyone whose age and state of health allows the regular donation of blood because unfortunately, none of us are safe from accidents and diseases and one day, donor blood may be needed by us or someone close to us.”

Donors must be healthy, rested people of 18-60 years of age, who have eaten and weigh at least 50 kg. The Blood Centre encourages donors to give blood regularly, three or four times a year. Each blood donation helps at least three patients. Donor blood is most often needed by cancer patients, women in labour, infants and people undergoing difficult surgeries as well as people who suffer from anaemia, blood loss, severe trauma and other diseases. Each year, Estonian hospitals make blood transfusions to approximately 15,000 patients.

The donor tents were put up with the help of the Rescue Board, the Estonian Defence Forces, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, the Police and Border Guard board, county and city governments, the Land Board, the Recruitment Centre of the Estonian Defence Forces, the Estonian National Defence College, the Defence League and the Estonian Red Cross and sponsored by several Estonian institutions.