I don’t know how this policy works but I think it’s a bit hurtful. I think that a family that has been emotionally battered by the loss of a child ought to be treated under compassionate grounds in the pursuit of a stringent policy.
We got a call that a family had lost a child living with sickle cell over the night at one of the top Lagos health institutions. And they were not allowed to take the body for burial, they had to meet certain conditions and this is the last of them. The hospital officials insisted that they must get a person to donate blood in replacement for the one given to the child. They didn’t want money as a substitute, just another person to donate.
Normally, when you receive blood transfusion from a Lagos public health facility, you are under obligation to get someone else to donate blood back or in some cases, give money in return to cover up for the blood used to rescue you. This is a good policy, by all means, because, as I often say, humans need humans to donate blood. Blood cannot be accessed by another means.
Yet, for this case and others like it that ends in an unfortunate tale, I think that there should be a humane consideration. A family who comes out with a healthy relative, I believe, would gladly fulfill all conditions no matter what they are. But for a family buckling under such an intense emotional grief, I honestly think it can be waived.
#YeahMomentsWithYO!