Ahmedabad: Just an hour after the Air India plane crashed Thursday, a group of 200 volunteers spread out to collect units of blood in anticipation of a large number of injured victims.
The group from the NGO, Sahaay, with the help of the Ahmedabad chapter of Red Cross, managed to collect 900 units of blood in eight hours.
“We were present at the Red Cross office from 3 pm to 11 pm, and we collected 900 units of blood. That’s not just sheer numbers; that’s 900 lives we tried to touch,” explained Sagar, a member of Sahaay.
“There are 900 reasons to believe in humanity, even on a day shadowed by loss,” he said, adding that the Red Cross administration opened its office for the humanitarian cause as BJ Medical College was teeming with a constant stream of the people arriving there.
For the second consecutive day, the blood donation drive is ongoing. “People are still contacting us and coming to the office to donate,” Sagar told ThePrint.
At the Red Cross office of Ahmedabad, people sat patiently in rows both inside and outside, waiting for their turn to donate blood.
Over 200 volunteers, Sagar said, came together in the most beautiful and unstoppable way.
The spirit was not restricted to the volunteers and donors. Many local residents rushed to the crash site at Meghaninagar to join hands with the administration and rescue personnel there.
Many of the injured were doctors and students of BJ Medical College, who were having lunch at their hostel in which the Air India flight AI171 crashed seconds after take-off Thursday. They were rushed to the Civil Hospital for medical succour.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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