A Shenzhen man, who quit a well-paid job in 2005 to set up a non-profit website aiming at assisting people possessing a rare blood type, has so far helped save the lives of 150 Rh-negative people around the country.
Lin Feng, 29, was an IT engineer specializing in Web design and maintenance in Futian District. He learned that he had the rare Rh-negative blood type while donating blood in 2002, said Thursday's Southern Metropolis Daily.
Lin said that a news report about the death of a taxi driver in Gansu Province in June 2005 prompted him to set up his Web site: www.china-rh.net.
"I did not know what a rare blood type mean to a person when I first learned that I am Rh-negative. But I was overwhelmed at a piece of news that a taxi driver who was injured when fighting a robber died of a loss of blood in the operation room. The driver was also Rh-negative, and the blood bank in the hospital did not have any stock of the rare type of blood. He would have been saved if he was not Rh-negative. But that is not the point: a person can't decide what type of blood he has," said Lin.
Rh blood-group system classifies blood according to presence or absence of the Rh antigen (factor) in erythrocytes. Rh-negative persons who receive Rh-positive blood transfusions produce antibodies to Rh factor, which attack red blood cells with the factor if they are ever received again, causing serious illness and sometimes death. The Rh-negative trait is rare worldwide.
Only three to five out of every 1,000 Mongoloid people are Rh-negative.
Official statistics from the Shenzhen Blood Center show that more than 1,000 people in Shenzhen are Rh-negative.
"The center has stock of Rh-negative types, supplying Shenzhen's hospitals," said Lan Yuxiao, a senior official at the center.
Lan said the center has kept records of those who have donated Rh-negative blood, but many other provinces or municipalities in China do not.
He said he was determined to set up a website with an electronic database which collected the information of people having the rare blood type.
"Doing a website is what I am good at, and running such a website is the best application of my skills to helping people. In a way, I am also helping myself as well," Li was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Lin first joined a chat room on QQ, a popular instant messenger, in which many Rh-negative people gathered. Lin told them about his idea of setting up a website, and gained their support.
"They all came and registered their personal information on my website, which we called "Guangdong Home for Rh-negative People," said Lin, adding that all the members did their bit in promoting the website, by inviting more people to join.
Lin made the website a national one by incorporating similar organizations in other provinces. The Web now has more than 2,000 registered Rh-negative members, the largest database of its kind in the country.
Lin's website saved a 40-day-old anemic baby boy in Tangshan, Hebei Province in August this year. The baby was in critical condition but no Rh-negative blood could be found in the city, or even in neighboring Beijing.
The father sought help from Lin's website, which informed two members in Tongzhou, Hebei Province, who later donated 200 cc of blood each to the baby and saved his life.
Lin, however, has one obstacle: money. "The website is operating on some public donation and marginal advertising revenue," said Lin, adding that at times he has to do part-time work to support his website.
(Shenzhen Daily October 26, 2007)
