A man with a very rare blood group turned saviour for a woman, who was battling for life due to extreme blood loss after delivery of her child at the MKCG Medical College Hospital here on Saturday.
And in fact, the 41-year-old Dilip Kumar Barik, a resident of ST Colony in Rourkela has already saved many others’ lives by donating blood earlier.
One Sabita, wife of Narayan Raita of Mendasingi under Patrapur block in Ganjam district, had been admitted to the MKCG Hospital on October 12 for delivery. Next day, she delivered a baby girl after a cesarean surgery. But she suffered from postpartum hemorrhage (heavy bleeding) after the operation.
After a test of her blood, it was known that the woman has a very rare type of blood called ‘Bombay phenotype’, commonly known as ‘hh’ blood group. Her family went to several blood banks to arrange the rare blood type but could not find it anywhere.
In a search of this particular blood group from various blood donor centres, MKCG Blood Bank’s doctor Rashmita Panigrahi came to know about Dilip, who has ‘hh’ blood. She immediately contacted Dilip seeking his help to save the patient’s life. On receiving the call from Dr Panigrahi, Dilip reached Brahmapur from Rourkela and donated his blood to the woman.
According to reports, this was the fifth time Dilip, who works at a private firm in Cuttack, donated his blood as he had earlier donated blood four times.
Dilip’s greatness was evident from the fact of his blood for another occasion even as he has been told by doctors not to donate blood time and again due to his rare type of blood.
Notably, the Bombay phenotype (hh) is deficient in expressing antigen H. The rare blood group was first discovered in Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1952 by Dr YM Bhende. Globally, the hh blood type has an incidence of one in four millions. In India, one person in 7,600 to 10,000 is born with this type.