KOTA KINABALU :The 4th floor
of Hospital Likas in Kingfisher was today swarmed with donors from all walks of
life rushing to donate blood to save the life of Neowell Vann Houtton, whose
rare blood type O Positive R1R1 JKA must have an EXACT match to qualify for a
successful blood transfusion.
Nilakrisna James, lawyer and
activist appealing on 12 year old’s Neowell’s behalf, said that hospital staff
had informed her that the blood of donors will go into the blood bank for the
hospital and distributed to any patient, not just Neowell.
However, Neowell must have
an exact blood match so all regular donors to the hospital who have donor cards
or are aware that they are O Positive R1R1 JKA are encouraged to donate their
blood at Hospital Likas 4th floor in Kingfisher and inform Neowell’s mother,
Selly Onong, 0107826955 immediately.
“I appealed to the hospital
staff that donors are responding to a public press appeal specifically to help
Neowell and that the donors are well aware that their blood will go into a
general blood bank if not exactly matched to Neowell.
"I was also informed by
the hospital that the blood will have to be screened first before it can be
used for transfusion, which is obvious. Selly Onong and her son has had no
updates from Hospital Likas all day and both mother and child are just getting
ready for hospital admission at any time as Neowell is now lying down at home
and no longer has the energy to get up,” said Nilakrisna.
Nilakrisna added that there
is an overwhelming sense of frustration from the public that the hospital only
opens their blood donation unit on weekdays till 5pm.
“This is not acceptable to a
lot of people as many consider the necessity for blood donation and transfusion
to be a constant humanitarian need and by closing on weekdays by 5pm you are
cutting off potential donors from people who are working adults.
"Not opening on
weekends is also a source of complaints from those who called me all day and
many have expressed the necessity for 24 hour emergency blood donation units to
be operational in the hospitals. This is something that the Ministry of Health
needs to address immediately as there is a real necessity to have a healthy
supply of various types of blood in our blood banks nationwide.”
“I am most concerned about
the fact that the hospital is not in a position to have a database of rare
blood types donors that they can call in situations like this.
"People with rare blood
types should be informed and be the first point of call to assist with blood
donations for patients like Neowell. We shouldn’t have to wait till critical
blood levels which are life threatening and then expect patients and their
families to just hope and pray that somebody from the public will turn up.
"Selly was told to go
and find her own donors! This is the fourth time we have had to appeal via the
press and a system is still not in place after 7 years to form a database of
donors that can be matched with patients of rare blood types. This is not
acceptable to anyone in the public. No one needs to die first before we have a
system in place.”
Datuk Raime Unggi, Member of
Parliament for Tenom P181, has also contacted Nilakrisna to join the efforts to
find donors in the interior of Sabah and will be heading the campaign to bring
awareness of the need for blood donation and the improvement in the screening
of blood types in the main hospital in Keningau.
“I am grateful to Datuk
Raime as he is the only MP today who has bothered to call me and respond
positively by donating his own blood. Kudos to him and to all the donors who
came forward to donate today: These are our real heroes of Sabah.”
ALL O-Positive blood type
are encouraged to continue donating next week in case a match can be found for
Neowell and be aware that if they are not O-Positive R1R1 JKA, they are still
donating blood to save countless lives of women and children in Hospital Likas.
“Test your blood and find
out if you are Neowell’s exact match. You can never waste your blood if you
donate to the hospital. Every drop you give will save a life,” said Nilakrisna.
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