Donor Found for 2-Year-Old With One of World’s Rarest Blood Types

A donor in the United Kingdom was revealed as a match for an American 2-year-old girl who has one of the world’s rarest blood types.

Zainab Mughal needs either “O” or “A” blood types, but in addition to the normal requirements, she also needs blood that is missing the antigen called “Indian B.”

The antigen is present in the majority of people’s red blood cells.

The toddler is suffering from neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer.

The OneBlood group, which launched a worldwide search for matches, said that potential donors must be exclusively Pakistani, Indian, or Iranian descent, meaning the donor’s birth parents are both 100 percent Pakistani, Indian, or Iranian, according to the group.

This group of people is already relatively rare, and less than 4 percent of them are actually missing the Indian B antigen.

British Donor Revealed

A British woman has been revealed as a match for Zainab.

The donor was described as a mother-of-two who lives in Nottingham but has chosen to remain anonymous.

The 50-year-old is of British-Indian Origin. She told the BBC that she felt “very humbled” to be able to donate blood to the little girl.

“I do hope the publicity encourages more people to donate, especially from the Asian community,” she said. “Even a single donation can make a massive difference to someone who needs it.”

The search isn’t over for matches for Zainab.

Two other donors were located in the United States but doctors said at least seven donors need to be found so that Zainab can receive fresh blood throughout the intensive treatments for neuroblastoma.

The match in the United Kingdom was found through the country’s rare donor panel.

Tears

Zainab’s father said that the family cried when they learned their little girl had cancer.

“We were all crying,” said Raheel Mughal in a video published by OneBlood. “This was the worst thing we were expecting.”

Frieda Bright, the reference laboratory manager for OneBlood, urged people to come forward, no matter where they live.

“This is all hands on deck,” Bright said in the video. “We are searching the world to try to find blood for this little girl.”

Mughal and a number of other family members tried to donate but their blood wasn’t a match.

“It’s a humble request and I request it from my heart,” Mughal said in the video. “My daughter’s life very much depends on the blood.”

Blood Donation Statistics

An estimated 6.8 million people donate blood every year in the United States, which is good because every two seconds someone needs blood in the country, according to the Red Cross.

Blood and platelets cannot be manufactured and can only come from volunteer donors. Just one donation has the potential to save three lives.

The blood type most often requested by hospitals is type O. About 45 percent of the people in America have Group O blood.

People wanting to donate blood must be in good health, weigh at least 110 pounds, and be at least 16, 17, or 18 years old, depending on where you live in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Reasons blood donations aren’t accepted include if a person is sick, is taking antibiotics, or if they have received a blood transfusion within the past year.

From NTD.com