UPDATE: Donors are still needed to help this young boy.
On Tuesday, I told you about the plight of a 14 month old boy with leukemia, who had just received a bone marrow transplant, and was in desperate need of blood transfusions. Due to the details of the bone marrow transplant, he needs AB negative blood (the rarest blood type) to avoid a serious immune reaction, but all St. Louis area hospitals are completely out of AB negative blood.
Later that same day, I was able to report that several donors had been found.
Now, it looks like this young boy will need more transfusions and more donors, as there is only so much blood individual donors can give safely. Due to the great concern and the desire to help on the part many people, the individuals involved in trying to help this young boy have been inundated with calls and messages to an almost crippling degree.
Here is what we need. First, please spread the word about this child's need by any means at your disposal: blog, tweet, yell, etc.
If, and only if, you are:
1. Blood type AB negative
2. Wiling and able to donate
3. In the St. Louis, Missouri region
then contact me via e-mail, facebook, or twitter (D rugbyologist) with your information. I will pass it on in an organized manner to those who need to know and they will contact you. Well wishes, concerns, and questions should go into the comment thread. Potential donors make direct contact. Concerned individuals use the comments.
If you are either not AB negative or not in the area, or both, please go donate at the most convenient location to you. If our blood banks were not in a state of perpetual need, emergency appeals like this would no longer be necessary. Your donation may not have the opportunity to save this life, but it can save someone else's.
