Mumbai: Blood donor travels 1,700 km for patient he has never met

Vinay Kulkarni donating bloodCivil engineer Vinay Kulkarni 30 had just got back from a long day at work last Thursday and was getting ready for dinner when he got a call that had him jumping out of his chair It was a 50yearold man sobbing into the phone saying how much he loved his 70yearold mother desperately in need of blood No he was neither a friend nor relative But the callers ailing mother had the rare Bombay blood group the same as Kulkarnis The Satara resident simply said I will reach there as soon as possibleKulkarni is one of the 179 people on record in the entire country with the Bombay blood group The donors stay in touch with each other to help out in case of emergencyAlso ReadMumbai 6yearolds kin asked to arrange for blood againA journey to JharkhandWhen I got the call I knew I had to leave immediately I told my wife and daughter that I had to go to Jharkhand and booked a tatkal ticket on the Azad Hind Express for Friday evening he saidI reached Tata Nagar on Sunday afternoon and took a bus to Ranchi There I met the Jharkhand coordinator for the OHH Bombay Rare Blood Group Association Atul Gera He told me that the elderly woman was admitted in Rourkelas Ispat General Hospital but because that place didnt have the facility to check blood I would have to donate it at Rajendra Medical InstituteWhenever we Bombay blood group donors give blood we only pray that we arent late and that we can save the patientKulkarni added After donating I called up the man to tell him I really wanted to meet his mother but didnt have the time to go to OdishaI dont remember how many times I have donated blood I guess this was the seventh time It all started five years ago when my father was hospitalised in critical condition I went to donate blood for him and was told that I have a rare blood group At that time I paid no attention to that bit of information as my focus was on my father A few days later the association contacted me and explained to me the importance of my blood group he saidThe closeknit communityAssociation founder Vikram Yadav said As far as I know the health ministry has identified 179 people with this blood group in India But we have found 230odd people so far through blood collection camps There are more who dont even know what the blood group meansBecause the number of donors is not enough we have to plan the donation properly We keep our WhatsApp status as the date on which we last donated blood which makes it easy for others to keep a track he added As you know blood of the ill and addicts is not suitable for donation Hence all our donors are addictionfree and take very good care of themselvesWe have over 15000 donors with different blood groups Our focus is on the Bombay blood group members We need to identify more of them and widen the networkWhen midday contacted Sanjay Lagun the son of the ailing woman for whom Kulkarni donated blood he said I am really grateful to him My mother has 30 per cent burns that are very deep She got burned on June 5 at our home in a village in West Singhbhum district After admission the doctors told us that she had a rare blood group and that we would somehow have to get two units of that to save her We managed that but over time the need increased and it was getting difficult for us Thats when this man Kulkarni came like an angel he added