NASHIK: A 22-year-old farm worker from the Yeola taluka of Nashik district has donated blood to save the life of a five-year-old child undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kochi, Kerala.
Both share the same very rare blood group — ‘P null’ phenotype.
The farm worker was contacted by the city-based Arpan blood bank, which was first alerted by Mumbai's National Institute of Immuno Haematology (NIIH) — the premier research institute of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
According to officials, the 5-year-old had met with an accident and needed surgery and blood transfusion.
The doctors in Kochi got four blood samples from people who share the same blood group, but their technical parameters failed to match. Then the doctors sounded an alert with the NIIH.
Dr Swati Kulkarni, of the NIIH, got in touch with Arpan and shared the details of the blood group and the data of the possible donor from Yeola. In the past, the farm worker had undergone some tests when the information regarding his rare blood group was registered with the NIIH.
Dr N K Tated, chairman of Arpan, said: “We received a communication from the NIIH about the requirement of blood from a donor in Yeola on July 17.”
“Our team first went to the donor and counselled him. Since there was a lockdown, he was unable to travel and our team had to go and meet him to collect the sample for cross-matching with the recipient's blood,” Tated said. The recipient's sample was flown in from Kochi as well to carry out the tests.
“Since the samples of both the Kochi patient and the Yeola donor fulfilled all the conditions, blood was drawn from the donor and couriered to Kochi through an air parcel,” Dr Shashikant Patil, MD, DNB in blood transfusion medicine, of the blood bank, said.
On July 26, they were informed by the hospital in Kerala that the surgery was performed and the recipient was recuperating.
“The donor is a farm worker. Initially there were apprehensions about donating the blood in our mind. But the doctors clarified all our doubts,” said a relative of the donor.
Besides the regular blood groups, there are 40 other rare and very rare blood groups. It is difficult to find donors for these rare blood groups.
Generally, the data on such rare blood groups is maintained by local blood banks and even the NIIH.
Both share the same very rare blood group — ‘P null’ phenotype.
The farm worker was contacted by the city-based Arpan blood bank, which was first alerted by Mumbai's National Institute of Immuno Haematology (NIIH) — the premier research institute of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
According to officials, the 5-year-old had met with an accident and needed surgery and blood transfusion.
The doctors in Kochi got four blood samples from people who share the same blood group, but their technical parameters failed to match. Then the doctors sounded an alert with the NIIH.
Dr Swati Kulkarni, of the NIIH, got in touch with Arpan and shared the details of the blood group and the data of the possible donor from Yeola. In the past, the farm worker had undergone some tests when the information regarding his rare blood group was registered with the NIIH.
Dr N K Tated, chairman of Arpan, said: “We received a communication from the NIIH about the requirement of blood from a donor in Yeola on July 17.”
“Our team first went to the donor and counselled him. Since there was a lockdown, he was unable to travel and our team had to go and meet him to collect the sample for cross-matching with the recipient's blood,” Tated said. The recipient's sample was flown in from Kochi as well to carry out the tests.
“Since the samples of both the Kochi patient and the Yeola donor fulfilled all the conditions, blood was drawn from the donor and couriered to Kochi through an air parcel,” Dr Shashikant Patil, MD, DNB in blood transfusion medicine, of the blood bank, said.
On July 26, they were informed by the hospital in Kerala that the surgery was performed and the recipient was recuperating.
“The donor is a farm worker. Initially there were apprehensions about donating the blood in our mind. But the doctors clarified all our doubts,” said a relative of the donor.
Besides the regular blood groups, there are 40 other rare and very rare blood groups. It is difficult to find donors for these rare blood groups.
Generally, the data on such rare blood groups is maintained by local blood banks and even the NIIH.
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