An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porter

an­drea.perez-sobers@guardian.co.tt

Trinidad and To­ba­go’s on­go­ing blood short­age cri­sis has once again ex­posed crit­i­cal gaps in the pub­lic health­care sys­tem.

Alexan­dra Kong, a 25-year-old fourth-year med­ical stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), died Wednes­day, just days af­ter her fam­i­ly is­sued a des­per­ate ap­peal for blood. Her death has in­ten­si­fied pub­lic scruti­ny of the avail­abil­i­ty of life­sav­ing blood sup­plies and broad­er sys­temic is­sues in health­care.

Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe con­firmed that the Min­istry of Health is pur­su­ing strate­gies to in­crease vol­un­tary, non-re­mu­ner­at­ed blood do­na­tions na­tion­wide. He said pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion cam­paigns will be ex­pand­ed to en­cour­age reg­u­lar con­tri­bu­tions and par­tic­i­pa­tion in hos­pi­tal and com­mu­ni­ty blood dri­ves.

“Short­ages re­main a chal­lenge, but we are com­mit­ted to im­prov­ing ac­cess to blood for crit­i­cal pa­tients,” Dr Bo­doe said. “We are pur­su­ing a na­tion­al strat­e­gy to sta­bilise blood sup­ply and en­cour­age vol­un­tary do­na­tions.”

An­tho­ny Blake, CEO of the North West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NWRHA), echoed the Min­is­ter’s mes­sage. He con­firmed that the NWRHA, through the Blood Do­na­tion Cen­tre at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (POS­GH), is fa­cil­i­tat­ing blood col­lec­tion and con­duct­ing reg­u­lar mo­bile dri­ves. Blake not­ed that main­tain­ing a con­sis­tent na­tion­al blood sup­ply re­quires co­op­er­a­tion from cit­i­zens, cor­po­ra­tions, and com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions.

He added that each unit of blood un­der­goes manda­to­ry test­ing for trans­mis­si­ble dis­eases and com­pat­i­bil­i­ty be­fore trans­fu­sion, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing im­me­di­ate avail­abil­i­ty. Both Dr Bo­doe and Blake ex­tend­ed their con­do­lences to Alexan­dra’s fam­i­ly and friends.

De­spite these mea­sures, sys­temic gaps con­tin­ue to en­dan­ger pa­tients. Na­tal­ie George-Sab­ga, founder of the John E. Sab­ga Memo­r­i­al Foun­da­tion for Pan­cre­at­ic Can­cer Aware­ness, high­light­ed Alexan­dra’s pro­longed strug­gle with de­layed treat­ment.

Alexan­dra first sought med­ical at­ten­tion in 2019 at Mount Hope, where a pan­cre­at­ic cyst was al­laged­ly mis­di­ag­nosed as pan­cre­ati­tis. Over the next four years, she re­peat­ed­ly sought help as her con­di­tion wors­ened but was nev­er giv­en a biop­sy, and her com­plaints were some­times dis­missed.

Six months ago, Alexan­dra’s moth­er con­tact­ed the foun­da­tion for guid­ance. With sup­port, Alexan­dra re­ceived chemother­a­py at St James Med­ical Com­plex, but de­lays in care and blood short­ages con­tin­ued to com­pro­mise her treat­ment. George-Sab­ga said:

“When her he­mo­glo­bin lev­els fell dan­ger­ous­ly low, she re­quired an im­me­di­ate blood trans­fu­sion. De­spite a blood dri­ve or­gan­ised specif­i­cal­ly for her, the blood was not avail­able in time. By the fol­low­ing day, her con­di­tion had wors­ened, and she could not re­ceive ur­gent treat­ment.”

Her case il­lus­trates broad­er chal­lenges: long waits for blood, lim­it­ed hos­pi­tal beds, and un­der­utilised fa­cil­i­ties. Pub­lic re­ac­tion has been sig­nif­i­cant, with so­cial me­dia users shar­ing sto­ries of mis­di­ag­no­sis, de­lays, and in­suf­fi­cient re­sources.

Ad­vo­cates em­pha­sise that time­ly di­ag­no­sis, rapid treat­ment ac­cess, and a sta­ble blood sup­ply are es­sen­tial, es­pe­cial­ly for ag­gres­sive ill­ness­es like pan­cre­at­ic can­cer. The foun­da­tion is now fo­cus­ing on blood do­na­tion ad­vo­ca­cy to pre­vent sim­i­lar tragedies.

“The sys­tem needs to change,” George-Sab­ga said. “We can­not con­tin­ue los­ing young lives be­cause care is de­layed or re­sources are un­avail­able. Blood do­na­tion must be­come a na­tion­al pri­or­i­ty.”

Dr Bo­doe stressed that vol­un­tary blood do­na­tion is cru­cial to sta­bil­is­ing na­tion­al re­serves and re­duc­ing short­ages that threat­en pa­tient sur­vival. Alexan­dra’s sto­ry al­so high­lights de­lays in di­ag­nos­tics, slow hos­pi­tal ac­cess, and ad­min­is­tra­tive in­ef­fi­cien­cies—is­sues that must be ur­gent­ly ad­dressed to pre­vent fur­ther loss of life.

George-Sab­ga called for im­me­di­ate re­forms, in­clud­ing faster di­ag­nos­tic pro­to­cols, ex­pand­ed blood bank ca­pac­i­ty, and full op­er­a­tional­i­sa­tion of un­der­used hos­pi­tal in­fra­struc­ture.

“Alexan­dra, who dreamed of be­com­ing a doc­tor, should gal­vanise the coun­try,” she said. “Aware­ness, ad­vo­ca­cy, and con­sis­tent pub­lic ac­tion, such as do­nat­ing blood, can pre­vent sim­i­lar tragedies. We must act ur­gent­ly.”

In a brief state­ment, Alexan­dra’s moth­er, Yun Ke­ow E. Kong, said:

“Alexan­dra is no longer with me. I miss her deeply. She was a gem, and I will do every­thing to en­sure her bright­ness shines on.”

So­cial me­dia has am­pli­fied pub­lic frus­tra­tion. One user wrote: “Blood short­ages should nev­er put lives at risk. #RI­PAlexan­dra #FixOurHealth­care.” An­oth­er said: “An­oth­er young life lost be­cause ba­sic care wasn’t avail­able. Ac­tion is need­ed now. #Blood­Short­age #Trinidad­Cares.”