In a struggling economy of a third world country, like Philippines, it is a common notion that you can sell everything, even your own blood. The truth is no more fiction than to those who are frequenting the hospitals. This is the real struggle in a country like ours just to feed the family.

I’ve seen several adult men lined up outside the hospital’s building waiting for a client, or the family member of the patient needing for blood transfusion. Hospital personnel allow such group to exist in the vicinity of the medical institution because oftentimes, the hospital doesn’t have sufficient blood supplies for the victims who needed blood transfusion.

An Alternative Profession

I encountered a family who rented one of the rooms of my aunt's apartment way back the early 90s. The couple had two young daughters (all were studying in elementary then). The wife had a whole day work at the mall as a security personnel. Meanwhile, the husband had a night job. He was also a security guard. Not only that, when he was off-duty, he was moonlighting as one of the 'draculas' in the hospital.

When I asked one of the 'draculas' (not the guard) outside the premise, he said they don't have the best alternative to gain instant money but to sell their own bloods. How about their health or lifestyle? They said that they are taking care of their health by sleeping more during the day because they are out at night.

They further said that it's legal in our country. They never committed a crime or murder anybody. They are there to help but with a price.

Donating Blood

Red Cross all over the world maintains blood banks whose services to the hospital are exemplary.

Donors are carefully selected from individuals belonging to the military who are known to frequent the bloodletting operations being sponsored by the Red Cross volunteers. Healthy donors are those who don’t have any diseases that can infect the patient.

A prospective donor is always ask about family background or medical history including blood diseases that are carried from generation to generation.

Synthetic Blood

Due to the scarcity of authentic blood donors and the possible contamination due to blood donor's involvement in vices like drugs and alcohol, the medical industry developed the Hemopure especially for victims who needed immediate blood transfusion.

Hemopure and products like it could prove to be invaluable in those parts of the world where there are shortages of safe blood.

Blood substitutes could be stored for up to three years unlike real blood, which has a shelf life of only weeks. Since the molecules of synthetic blood can be as much as thousand smaller than a red blood cell, they can squeeze past obstructions, like a blood clot that's depriving the heart or brain with oxygen.