A Covid Samaritan, he is driven to save human lives

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 23

Rajesh Sidhana, who has been donating blood and platelets for the past three decades, is busy arranging blood and platelets for Covid as well as other patients these days.

The 49-year-old does not switch off his phone even during night as he keeps getting panic calls even in the middle of the night. During the pandemic period, he received calls for plasma from Delhi, NCR, Faridkot, Ludhiana this time. Many times he has to go to hospitals to donate blood in the middle of the night. He donated blood for the 104th time on December 10. For the first time in his life, he twice donated plasma last year.

Having donated blood for 104 times and platelets for 30, he has become the highest blood donor in the city. His links are well established among active donors and he stays connected with them through WhatsApp.

Last night, his sleep was interrupted as he received a desperate call for a bottle of blood and the caller was from Jammu whose kin was admitted at a private hospital here. He immediately accessed three WhatsApp groups being operated by Being Human Blood Donation Society, Khalsa NGO, Amritsar Blood Donors Association and Knowledge Villa Integrated and arranged a suitable donor.

“I had lost my father when I was a middle school student. That tragedy upset my entire family. Despite being a scholarship student and being offered free of cost study, I could not pursue it any further. I adopted the role of a bread winner of my family. This changed the course of my personal life and approach to it.”

A manager at a private hospital for the past nearly two decades, his day remains extremely busy juggling with administrative, finance and other works of the hospital. Yet his boss never stops him from going out of the hospital in the middle of working day as they are all well aware that he goes out to help a person in need of medical exigency. After finishing his job, he does an hour-long free of cost service at Shri Ram Charitable Clinic on the Majitha road.

He had started blood donation at the age of 18. He is also associated with eye donation. Now, he inspires the family members of desperate callers to donate blood to help other families in need.