Dr Siti Hajar (fifth left) receives the apheresis platelet machine from Toh (eighth left) while other board members and hospital staff look on.
BINTULU: Bintulu Hospital Board of Visitors yesterday handed over an apheresis platelet machine worth RM275,000 to the hospital.
Its deputy director Dr Siti Hajar Rosli received the machine on behalf of the hospital from the board chairman Pemanca Datuk Dr Francis Toh.
“We are very grateful to Bintulu Hospital Board of Visitors for the donation. It means a lot to us,” said Dr Siti Hajar at the handing-over ceremony.
She said with the machine the hospital would be able to save more lives and meet the high demand for apheresis platelet procedure.
“The demand for platelet here is high. We used to get supply from Kuching, Sibu and Miri in the past,” she said.
Toh, meanwhile, said the machine was the first one to be placed at Bintulu Hospital. Only Kuching, Miri and Sibu already have such a machine.”
“I was told that with this machine, a (blood) donor can save three lives. In a normal procedure it takes four persons to save one life,” he said.
The machine was bought using proceeds from a fund-raising event recently.
An apheresis machine is a device that separates plasma, platelets, white blood cells and red blood cells from a donor’s blood.