Lara is a real medical miracle. She suffered from anaemia even before being born, due to antibodies. They managed to save her life by giving her seven blood transfusions while still in her mother's womb, and she required a number of transfusions after being born.

"Lara is now a healthy, mischievous little girl, and her smile and the happiness of her parents can be considered the best reward to all who made that possible, namely to all blood donors," said Lilijana Kornhauser Cerar from the Intensive therapy unit of the Ljubljana Maternity hospital.

Near the end of pregnancy approximately ten percent of blood pumped by the heart of a pregnant women flows through placenta. If there is a problem with placenta, both mother and child can bleed out within a couple of minutes, she explained, and added that in such cases large quantities of blood are required.

The secretary general of the Red Cross of Slovenia Renata Brunskole emphasized that blood donation is the largest mass solidary action in Slovenia. Annually more than 100,000 people donate blood, which yields more than 42,000 litres of blood per year.

Aleš Fischinger, specialized in traumatology from the Department of Traumatology of the University Medical Centre of Ljubljana explained: "Many patients receive blood with the purpose of improving their blood count, and thus better survive an injury. Hundreds of patients would never survive without the donated blood."

Organ and tissue transplantations
Organ and tissue transplantations would not be possible without blood donors, warned surgeon Ivan Kneževič, head of the transplant activity at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana. Transplant activity is extremely well developed in our country, in some cases belongs among the very best in the world, e.g. at heart transplantation, underlined Kneževič.

Principle of solidarity, ethics, and morality of the society
After the Second World War the transfusion medicine started to develop in the manner we are today familiar with, based on the voluntary unpaid blood donation. "In Slovenia we advocate two principles: the principle of solidarity reflecting the general state of ethics and morality within a society, and in a developed world it should be crystal clear that it is the only manner of blood donation which ensures adequate and safe supply of blood," they stressed, and underlined the principle of self-sufficiency: "Slovenia has been self-sufficient since the very beginning. We have never had to import blood from abroad."

Gorazd Kosmač
Translated by G. K.