A true story of poor utilisation of some rare units of blood. (Names and identities have not been mentioned to protect privacy)
A patient was brought into the emergency wing of a hospital seeking immediate treatment. Doctors admitted the patient and informed the relatives that a surgery was needed as soon as possible and 2 units blood would be required. When the patient's blood sample reached the blood bank the blood bank informed the doctors and the family that the patient's blood group was Bombay Blood Group. The next 2 days were spent in a mammoth search for Bombay Blood Group donors.
After putting in huge effort the family finally managed to get 2 units of blood on a standby for the operation. For the Bombay blood group donors, the urgency of the situation weighed much more than their wishes - they donated immediately just to ensure that their blood helps save a life. Fortunately the surgery went well and no blood was required. Without the units, in case the operation was started there could have been a complication with very serious consequences. Donation was definitely required. But what happened after the patient's surgery got over without blood was horrifying.
For next 25 days the blood bank kept the units of Bombay blood Group on the shelves without a mention. It is only during a casual conversation that they indicated that 1 unit of Bombay Blood Group was lying on their shelves just about to be wasted off.
This happened at a time when Sankalp receives a Bombay Blood Group request almost every fortnight. We have a patient who is suffering from Thalassemia and who needs blood transfusion of Bombay phenotype every 20 days. Bombay blood group - the rarest of rare blood group, the group which is believed to be running in the veins of 1 in every 17,000 - 18,000 individuals, the group which is shipped across the nation for emergencies, this group lay unutilised on a shelf and came close to expiry. After 25 days of shelf storage it was unsuitable for any Thalassemia patient beside several other diseases.
We have faced 3 such situations in last 4 months where a unit of Bombay Blood Group which was either collected for a patient, or which was donated by someone who did not know that their blood group was Bombay group came close to expiry. Had the Blood Bank brought the unit to our notice immediately after they knew it had no immediate takers, we would have been able to ensure better utilisation.
Hedgevar blood bank from Maharashtra notified us of the collection of a Bombay negative blood group. In a week's time we had that unit being transfused.
We request all the blood banks to work with us to ensure that each unit of this extremely rare phenotype is utilised in the best possible way. In order to make it easy for you to alert us in case of a Bombay Blood Group collection, we are sending you alert stickers which you can put up at the place where blood grouping is done in the blood bank. At the time of writing this article, a Bombay Blood group request is being handled by Sankalp. A 5 year old kid from Vishakapattanam who needs to undergo an open heart surgery needs 2 units of Bombay negative blood.
Let's serve together. Let's make the difference - the difference between death and life.