Rare blood need finds a rare heart

Mumbai: In a city which rarely stops to help someone in distress, Aadesh Gajre, a youngster from Badlapur, has performed a task as rare as his blood group—the Bombay Rh-negative. 

    He braved the heavy rains on Sunday and the crippling mega block on the Central Railway to reach a blood bank in Bandra around 8.30pm to donate blood for a seriously ill patient in far-off Kochi. 
    Blood banks generally don't accept donations on Sunday evening, but doctors at Mahatma Gandhi Seva Mandir Blood Bank made an exception given the 21-year-old Aadesh's humanitarian gesture. 
    "I don't know who he is, but had to do it because no one else in India could have helped him at that moment,'' Aadesh told the TOI. 
    Indeed, the Bombay blood group is among the rarest blood groups. The rarity of Adesh's blood group can be gauged by the fact that there are only about 70 eligible donors across the country. Think Foundation, an NGO that helps patients and families with organizing blood, has a list of 25 people in the city with the Bombay positive group and only four with the Bombay negative group. 
    "Social networking sites and newspapers in Kochi had carried a plea for donors of this rare blood, but couldn't come up with any donation,'' said Think Foundation's Vinay Shetty. "When ever we get a request for this blood group it's a nightmare call," Shetty added. A SPECIAL GIFT 
The Bombay Blood Group is an extremely rare ABO group in which the basic protein called H antigen is missing in the red cells. The group is so named because it was discovered 50 years ago at KEM hospital in then Bombay. This group is incompatible with all A, B and O donors In India, not more than 70 people (29 in Mumbai) are eligible to donate this blood 'Learnt about my rare blood group only on Sat' 
Mumbai: The 21-year-old Aadesh Gajre had responded to the call to donate blood for Renjeeve V R, a 26-year-old at Medical Trust Hospital in Kochi, who had undergone a bowel resection and needed blood transfusion urgently to recover. "We learnt that the few eligible donors in Bangalore couldn't be contacted. So we began contacting people on our list,'' said Shetty. Two numbers were untraceable and the third was out of town. 
    That left them with Aadesh, who until Saturday didn't know that he had such a rare blood group. "I have been donating blood at Bharat College where I study for the last two years, but I wasn't ever told that I had the Bombay blood group,'' said Aadesh. On learning that he was the only help for Renjeeve, he carried out the Badlapur-to-Bandra trek on Sunday determined to help a person he doesn't even know. 
    As for Renjeeve, the blood components reached him by air on Tuesday. 
    "The operation was successful, but he will need twothree more bottles,'' said his college friend, Bengalurubased Sharat Parabhakaran who is coordinating the effort.WHAT IS BOMBAY BLOOD GROUP? 
    50 years ago, a patient admitted to KEM Hospital in Parel needed a blood transfusion. As the red cells in his blood sample grouped like they do in O group, he was administered O group blood. But he developed a reaction, leading to the transfusion being stopped 
    The patient's blood was studied in detail and it was found that it didn't conform to any of the known groups —A, B, AB or O. As the discovery took place in Bombay, it was called the Bombay Blood Group 
    The group doesn't contain the basic protein called H antigen. All other groups contain a versions of H—Antigen A in A, Antigen B in B, antigen AB in AB and Antigen H in O. Bombay Blood group is also termed as OH or absence of H

Aadesh Gajre