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ONLY 40 IDENTIFIED IN CITY
Finding this blood group is a Herculean task ....Rajiv Sharma I TNN
Mumbai: Getting four litres of blood for a relative’s operation proved to be a colossal task for Bangalore resident Arshad Khan (name changed). Reason? His relative has a rare blood group called the ‘Bombay blood group’.
According to Dr Yogini Patel, in-charge of the blood bank at BSES Hospital in Andheri (W), only 0.001% of the population have this blood group. In other words, only about 35 to 40 such identified donors live in the city.
“The unique thing about this blood group is that the H antigen on the red blood cells is less in these people and so they have to be identified as a separate group,’’ she said. People with the Bombay blood group can accept blood only from the same group.
Unfortunately, there is no list of such donors in the city. “We have two donors of this blood group with us, and we have to call them each time there is a requirement,’’ Dr Patel said.
Vinay Shetty from the NGO Think Foundation said, “This blood group has been known for a long time and efforts have been made to identify particular people.’’
He added, “If we know about one donor, then we also try to check the blood groups of the family members as they are also likely to have the same group.’’
One such donor of the Bombay Blood Group, Santosh Shetty, recently donated blood to a patient in Bangalore and was happy with the effort. “Every five or six months, I get a call from a blood bank for donating blood. I come forward willingly as this is a rare blood group,’’ he said.
Incidentally, Shetty is always careful while crossing the streets because he is aware that getting a donor will become difficult, in case he needs a blood donation.
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