Rourkela: Four youths of Rourkela turned life saviour for a patient by donating rare blood group 'Bombay Phenotype'. It is pertinent to mention that the patient Santosh Kumar Behera, a resident of Balasore underwent heart surgery in the year 2016 at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar during when the same youths had come forward to donate him blood.
Expressing satisfaction after donating the rare 'HH-Bombay +Ve Blood', one of the donors Manas Ranjan Pradhan said, "I am donating blood for the 13th time. As I have got such a rare blood group, I feel grateful to help the ones who need it,."
"In the year 1999-2000, I came to know about my rare blood Bombay Phenotype. I get phone calls from blood bank and concerned persons whenever there is a requirement," said another donor Umacharan Parida.
HH Blood Group gets its name from its interesting discovery by Dr YM Bhende in 1952 in Mumbai (Then Bombay). Also called Bombay Phenotype, it is so rare that chance of its presence is ‘one in a population of 7500’. Generally found in O Blood group bearing people, sometimes carrier of this blood group even are not compatible for transfusion from O group. That is when their blood group is identified as HH blood group.
Speaking about the rare blood group, blood bank officer Dr Satish Chandra Mishra said, "Many times people fail to know that they have Bombay Phenotype but only with proper grouping and cross patching it can be identified."
Earlier this month, a Rourkela resident Dillip Ranjan Barik with HH-Bombay +Ve Blood saved the life of one Milli, a resident of Patrapur area in Ganjam district who had successfully given birth to a baby girl, but due to loss of blood during the delivery, her health condition had become critical.