Blood Banks in Jamshedpur

Blood Groups are A, B, AB or O. Group O is ''universal donor'' as far as red cell transfusions are concerned. AB is the ''universal donor'' for plasma transfusions. June 14 is World Blood Donor Day. It is the birthday of Karl Landsteiner, the scientist who discovered the ABO blood group system. The theme of World Blood Donor Day campaign 2012 was ''every blood donor is a hero''. Donors have to give consent before donating blood.

Blood donations are of many types. An ''allogeneic'' or ''homologous'' donation is when a donor gives blood for storage at a blood bank for transfusion to any unknown recipient. As opposed to this, a ''directed'' donation is when a person (a family member) donates blood for transfusion to any specific person. A ''replacement donor'' donation is when a friend or family member of the recipient donates blood in order to replace the stored blood which was used in a transfusion, thereby ensuring a consistent supply (e.g. happens  in Ghana). When a person has blood stored that will be transfused back to the donor at a later date, usually after surgery, that is called an 'autologous' donation.