Nagpur: In a humanitarian gesture, a man from Bhopal reached Nagpur after traveling all night and donated his rare group blood to save the life of a 17-year-old anaemic girl from Gondia. The name of the man is Hitesh Arora.
Chandni Kursunge was admitted to Gondia Government Hospital and was waiting for a blood group for almost six days. Chandni needed A2B (A2B positive blood), a rare blood group. Only 0.6-1.4% of the entire world population has this blood group.
Hitesh Arora, who has this rare blood group of A2B, said this is not the first time he has travelled to donate blood. “I am a regular blood donor. A few years ago I was told that my blood type is B+ve. But then a year ago in a blood donation camp I was told that my blood group is a rare blood group. So, I went to the Central Laboratory in Bhopal and confirmed it,” he said.
Hitesh’s blood group A2B is a rare sub-group of AB blood group. Being a conscientious blood donor, Arora tried to register himself on the rare blood donor platform. Surprisingly, this group was not mentioned in many major registries. “I could only find one international online registry where this blood group was mentioned. Since then I have donated blood thrice to needy patients,” said Hitesh. Through this international registry, the social workers in Nagpur found the contact of Hitesh. Arora said that he last donated blood in April 2022 and saved a young woman from Rewa.
Members of Nagpur’s Seva Foundation, a social organization that helps patients admitted in government hospitals, said they got a demand for this blood group for the first time. “Sometimes we get demand for the Bombay Blood groups, which are considered rare. We have a list of donors. Most of the time, we manage the Bombay blood group with this list. But, last week, we came across the very rare A2B positive blood group,” said Purushottam Bhosale of Seva Foundation. The team searched for the donor of this blood group all over Vidarbha.
Arora said that he first confirmed from the authorities of both government hospitals of Gondia and Nagpur that the case was genuine. Then he planned my trip to Nagpur, said Arora, who travelled by train at his own expense and reached Nagpur. Here, Seva Foundation members welcomed him at the railway station and brought him straight to GMCH Nagpur. Doctors completed the blood donation formalities within 2 hours as Arora had a train back to Bhopal. He said he will stay in contact with the girl’s family members in case she needs blood in the future as she is anaemic.
