Taking Blood, Taking Names

Sangita!

Last week Edward & I were pulled from our regular routine at the WIN foundation to help the local government school with blood testing. Apparently some girls from WIN organized a lab technician to come and record the kid's blood types for 10 rupees a child.... that is about 18 cents. The government does it for around 50 rupees a head so this was a good initiative to offer this at such an inexpensive rate. When I first heard blood testing I was thinking that I was going to basically be working at a blood drive, the thought of this made me squirm. Once I found out it was blood typing I was still picturing us giving injections and drawing blood from each kid. Nah, this is India, so why would we do things the way we do it in the US? Instead we did old school blood typing just the way I was taught in good ole anatomy lab. You take a child, prick their finger, squeeze the finger, and make 3 small dots of their blood on a tablet. Next you test each dot of blood with different liquids and mix to figure out the blood groups. After learning that I actually have done this before I really wanted to get in on the action and start pricking some fingers... I guess I really am an evil teacher. Lucky for the kids I just recorded the data instead.

Urani, literally squirming

I was amazed at how quick the whole process went and that entire school was able to be tested during the school day. I didn't know my blood group until before coming to India, why doesn't the US just test you when you are born? On top of that why did it take me over a week to get my lab results of what blood type I was? These kids were finding out in a minute flat. Most surprisingly to me there were soooo many kids that had the blood type O+ which I thought was supposed to be really rare. Seriously, almost the entire 5th grade had O+. I thought it was strange. Besides watching the kids squirm my favorite part of the day was trying to guess the blood type myself, based off the results, I was definitely letting my inner Anatomy nerd shine. Also, watching the kids get the results were hilarious. All of the B+ were high-fiving like they were apart of some exclusive club. My favorite reaction was from one of my favorite students Bos who started jumping up in the air with his fists pumping and his hips thrusting chanting "A-B-POS-I-TIVE" over and over again. Now I wish I had that on tape.

It is definitely days like these that make me so glad that I suffered through a year of Anatomy & Physiology. It feels so good to actually apply what I learned. I guess I owe a big thanks to Dr. Cecala & Bartlett for that one. Actually, more importantly I owe it to my lab partner Eileen and dear friend Megan who sat with me through the crazy study sessions when my sanity was out the window.

Recording the blood groups

Well that turned into an acceptance speech.

Anyways, sending my thoughts & love always.



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Becca