The  recently launched expat “Blood for Everyone” program had it’s first emergency call on Thursday (November 11). 

Ron Nystrom, was  taken from Bocas Del Toro to Punta Pacific Hospital for heart surgery and no O+ blood was available. Karen Barnett and Tom Lord (seen, in the photo with a hospital technician), were the first to arrive and donate. They were followed by a squad of police trainees, rounded up by a neighbor from Bocas who had a relative in the force. The hospital gained enough B+ blood for Ron, and also topped up supplies of O+.

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