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)
