Blood Donation in Thailand: Explaining the Dire RH- Shortage [S6.E39]

Greg interviews Ryan Cullinan of the Thailand RH- Blood Donation
Facebook group. The guys open with a discussion of the nature of
blood donation: everyone knows it exists, everyone knows they
SHOULD do it, but due to lack of social pressure, many people
never donate. Greg manned up though for this show and went and
gave blood. Check out the pics of his adventure below.


Ryan tells the story of how he got involved in blood donation in
the first place. Long story short, a close friend of his in
Thailand was in a motorbike accident and was seriously in need of
blood for his treatment. His friend had an RH- blood type, which
as Ryan explains, is much more common among Europeans than it is
among Asians, putting people of European ancestry (as well as RH-
Thais) at great risk of not being able to get the blood they need
when in a Thai hospital. As a result of seeing his friend's
struggle - which, luckily, had a happy ending - Ryan set up his
first FB group dedicated to convincing foreigners to donate blood
in Thailand. 


The guys continue by getting into some of the interesting facts
of blood donation, including the unfortunate exclusion in the
past of many people from the EU due to fears over Mad Cow
disease. Most importantly, Ryan (and Greg) encourage listeners to
head down to the National Blood Center at the Thai Red Cross
Society in Bangkok to make your first donation. It'll cost you
nothing but some time, but you might literally save someone's
life. :)


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