Four Shanghai residents have donated blood so a Liberian woman with a rare blood type can undergo brain surgery at a hospital in Pudong New Area, hospital staff said Sunday.

The patient, whom the hospital called Clara, came to Shanghai specifically to have a brain tumor removed at Shanghai Pudong Hospital, according a report in the Shanghai Evening Post.

A volunteer donates blood Sunday at a blood center in Changning district. The donation will be used to help a Liberian patient with a rare blood type who will have surgery in Shanghai. Photo: Yang Hui/GT

 

The hospital took advantage of a local "panda blood" club organized by the Shanghai Evening Post to find matching blood for Clara.

The club has more than 100 members who have negative blood types.

"We have received 800 milliliters of blood from donors," said Zhao Qin, a club official, on Sunday. "We will receive two more donations from Jiangsu Province tomorrow. It won't be much trouble to get the 1,200 milliliters we need by tomorrow."

Clara's surgery was initially scheduled for Monday, but had to be postponed after the hospital learned Friday that the patient's blood type was A-negative, which is rare among East Asians, and couldn't secure enough blood of that type for the surgery, according to the report.

The surgery requires at least 1,200 milliliters of blood. Although the hospital arranged for the blood to be transferred from the local blood bank system, there was not enough A-negative blood available as of Saturday.

According to the Shanghai Blood Center, 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent of East Asians have negative blood types. The percentage among Caucasians and Africans is about 10 percent.

The typical blood donation is 200 milliliters, though a single donor is allowed to give up to 400 milliliters at a time, according to local blood transfusion regulations.

It usually takes two to three work days for local blood banks to come up with enough negative-type blood, said Meng Yan, a press officer from the Shanghai Blood Center.

"When there is a medical emergency, however, there are emergency response groups in each community that can meet that need," she told the Global Times.

They also keep a store of frozen red blood cells for medical emergencies.  

A hospital official surnamed Sheng told the Global Times that the hospital has decided to postpone the surgery because the donated blood still needs to be tested.

Sheng said that Clara came to Shanghai for treatment because the surgery couldn't be done in her home country.