Blood donation

The woman's identity has not been revealed.

Vladimir Petrovic, director of the Institute for Public Health of Vojvodina (IZJZV), said that the patient's death was the consequence of the gravity of her primary illness - and that it came despite the doctors using "all modern methods of treatment" to help her.

An adorable dance move executed by a pair of newlyweds in front of the table with the cake ends in disaster, a guy who thinks he's something of a superhero turns out to be anything but, and an amateur magician messes up the classic tablecloth trick.

Shortages of blood have intensified over the summer, sources say, with some hospitals finding themselves obliged to postpone scheduled operations.

Evangelismos, the capital's largest hospital, is a case in point. According to the head of the workers' union, Ilias Sioras, the situation at Evangelismos is critical.

Every 2 seconds someone needs blood in Bulgaria, around 450 ml of blood can save up to three lives, Nadezhda Todorovska, deputy general manager of the Bulgarian Red Cross (BRC), said during the FOCUS Radio's morning show with regard to the World Blood Donor Day.

BELGRADE - Under the new law on transfusion medicine, passed by the Serbian parliament on Tuesday, the country's 47 hospital blood banks for transfusion services will be replaced by four centres that will be authorised for blood collection, processing, testing and distribution.

On Palm Sunday 120 people took part in the blood donation campaign, organized by the Bulgarian Red Cross, according to BNR.

 The campaign was also supported by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Hospitals in Sofia need more that 100 liters of blood daily and that is why regular blood donation is of great importance, doctors say.  

With a campaign on April 9, the day of the big Christian holiday Palm Sunday (Tsvetnitsa), the spring campaign for voluntary blood donation continues throughout Bulgaria, the press centre of the Bulgarian Red Cross (BRC) announced.

Hospitals in Greece, as well as elsewhere in the European Union, are suffering from a blood shortage due to the harsh weather and a flu epidemic, according to Haris Matsouka, the president of the National Center for Blood Donation (EKEA), who made an appeal for volunteers to give blood.

Patients who depend on frequent blood transfusions are getting restricted doses because of shortages at Greece's blood banks, the Association of Cooley's Anemia Sufferers has warned.

Greek nursing unions are calling for a state health body to withdraw a video promoting blood donation, saying it presents nurses as adult film actresses.

The advert uses the slogan "Now you too can be a hero" and shows nurses with red high heels, miniskirts and visible cleavage drooling over a doctor who has just revived a patient. It ends with a man saving lives by donating blood.