On November 4 ‘BloodForNeedy’ tweeted about the urgent need of a donation of AB positive blood group for a kidney patient admitted to Breach Candy Hospital. She needed the blood for her kidney transplant that was due after two days. Soon, the tweet got several retweets and within a few hours, the requirement was fulfilled.
A family member of the patient, @alok_nanda tweeted: “#thankyou @Bloodhelpline @iCanSaveLife @BloodAid #mumbai #blood AB+ requirement has been fulfilled #mumbaiblood #oblidged great response (sic)”.
This is not the only case where a tweet helped in saving a life. With a growing craze of social media especially among young Mumbaikars, requirements in medical emergencies are increasingly being fulfilled via Twitter and Facebook posts that are getting faster responses.
In a heartwarming incident, Mumbai-based BloodDonorsIndia (BDI) (@BloodDonorsIn) through Twitter arranged for blood donation for a pregnant woman at Tanuku in Andhra Pradesh and saved not only the life of the woman, but also her child. BDI is the world’s largest network for blood donation with 2,60,000 members and also the largest many-to-many community on Twitter worldwide. Through Twitter it has reached all over India in towns including Tonk (Rajasthan), North Lakhimpur (Assam), Bagalkot (Karnataka) and Ongole (Andhra Pradesh). “Twitter is better because the user tends to be more action-oriented, and also because a blood donation request spreads to strangers much quicker. I wanted to create a network of strangers helping each other, and blood donation was the right currency,” said Anish Nayar, founder of BDI. Now, it receives 10,000 blood donation requests every year.
Another Pune-based Twitter account ‘Blood Drop’ is also running a community-based blood donation service that has now 17,000 followers. In September 2009, Vijay Soni, co-founder of the group started the Facebook page ‘IcanSaveLife’. Then, in January 2010, its Twitter handle with the same name was started.
Rotary Club of Mumbai on its Facebook page has started promoting skin donation along with National Skin Bank (NSB). Also, NSB recently started a campaign on the page titled, ‘Operation Restore’ for burn victims.
On Social Media Week, Amit Panchal, a social media expert who runs another blood donation Twitter account ‘Blood Monk said, “Posts on social media play more important role as it gets faster responses.”
