Kumakuntta Yadigiri was thrown into despair when he was told his son has a blood type that only one in 10,000 have. The family set out to search for donors with ‘Bombay’ blood type and ended up with a list of people, all based out of Hyderabad.
Nithin, the 11-year-old child, was hospitalised at a private health facility in the city after suffering a bout of fever that refused to subside for nearly two weeks. The boy’s family was told he may need blood transfusions.
“We went to a local blood bank that found something unusual about my son’s blood group. We then approached the blood bank at a large hospital where they confirmed my son has the Bombay blood type,” said Yadgiri. He said his blood group is O positive while that of his wife is A positive.
According to M. Prasad Rao, Blood Bank Medical Officer at the State-run Niloufer Hospital, the Bombay blood type is a sub-type of the O group, first discovered in Mumbai, then Bombay, in 1952. “The Bombay phenotype is among the many subtypes which are very rare. At Niloufer Hospital’s blood bank, which is among the most sought-after in the State given the number of patients the hospital sees, we have come across only one donor in the last five years.”
While Nithin has not needed transfusions and is on the road to recovery, thanks to medication, the family’s search to procure the rare blood type for their ailing son exposes hurdles that the recipients face, despite the efforts of blood banks, non-government organisations and technological advances in the recent years.
“Often, obtaining blood in the present day is not as easy as it is generally assumed. As blood types like Bombay type are rare, donors often have to travel long distances to donate. This can be a dampener,” said Shaik Shareef, founder of Friends2Support, a not-for-profit non-governmental organisation that runs a web-portal and an app to connect donors with recipients.
He added there are donors of Bombay group and other rare blood-types, including AB negative, in Hyderabad, but the rate of regular voluntary donations among such donors is very low compared to donors of common blood types. Among the main reasons he states is that blood banks often do not respect or appreciate a voluntary donor, particularly those with rare blood types, when they commit to a donation.
It is also possible that such people donate only in need and not regularly. “We advise donors with rare blood types to not donate regularly as we cannot foresee a situation of need, and the blood is discarded after 45 days if it is not used,” Dr. Prasad said.
