Odisha: Cop donates rare blood, helps woman during delivery

BHUBANESWAR: In the times of despair due to the Covid pandemic, a constable of Odisha police has turned out to be a messiah by donating blood to help a pregnant woman during her delivery at Puri hospital on Tuesday. The woman, Tunamani Mallick (34), and the newborn are fine.
Mallick’s family members were frantically looking for a rare B negative blood group for her delivery when Puri police promptly came to her rescue and rushed constable Abhishek Mahapatra to the hospital to donate his blood. Though she was not infected by Covid-19, some donors reportedly refused to visit the hospital for fear they might get infected.
“We received an SOS on our official twitter handle (@SPPuri1). It was an emergency case and the woman’s family members were not getting the rare blood group. We found that constable Abhishek has the same blood group. His timely donation helped save the lives of the woman and her baby,” Puri superintendent of police (SP) Kanwar Vishal Singh said. Acknowledging the constable’s act, the Puri SP gave him a Rs 500 in cash from his own pocket and a day’s leave.
As Covid has affected blood donation activities across the state, the Puri police last week had launched a blood donation programme under the banner Sanjeevani to assist the needy with blood. “Everyday, we keep some police volunteers on standby, those who are willing to donate blood to people during emergencies. The list of donors contains both common and rare blood groups. This is a small effort from our part in addition to the already existing organisations and NGOs who are doing a wonderful job in organising blood donation camps and mobilising blood through various means like established networks and social media,” Singh said.
The Puri police has designated reserve inspector (RI) Tunu Sahoo as the nodal officer to coordinate between blood donors and needy patients. “We have been sharing names of police donors on different local WhatsApp groups every day. The response has been very positive,” Singh added.