Love! This "panda blood" volunteer in Beijing has been donating blood since he was 20 years old
2024-08-28
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Bao Xiaoyan participated in the free blood donation. Photo provided by the Publicity Department of Shunyi District Committee
Bao Xiaoyan's home has a thick stack of blood donation certificates. She has been volunteering to donate blood since she was 20 years old. This year marks her 18th year. She has donated more than 6,000 milliliters of blood, helping more than 20 families regain hope in life.
Bao Xiaoyan was born in 1986 and now works as an office manager at Sinopharm Group Industrial Co., Ltd. in Niulanshan Town, Shunyi. "The earliest blood donation certificate was in 2006, when I first participated in a free blood donation activity. It was also at that time that I learned that I had 'panda blood', which is very rare," Bao Xiaoyan said with a smile.
There are many ways to classify human blood types. There are two main indicators related to blood transfusion. In addition to the commonly mentioned A, B, O or AB blood types, there is another important indicator, which is the Rh blood type. Most people have positive Rh blood types, and very few have negative Rh blood types. Bao Xiaoyan is AB type Rh negative, which is extremely rare.
Rare blood types mean a serious shortage of blood for medical use. Especially in emergency medical situations where blood transfusions are needed, insufficient blood supply is likely to endanger life. Since then, whenever and wherever she receives a message for help with rare blood types, Bao Xiaoyan will rush to the hospital without hesitation. "I didn't think too much about it. They needed it and I happened to have it, so I went," Bao Xiaoyan said.
Among her blood donation experiences, there is a three-year blood donation relay that Bao Xiaoyan still remembers vividly. "It was in 2016. I was at work when I received a notification on my mobile phone that a patient with a rare blood type who was suffering from severe anemia was in critical condition and urgently needed a blood transfusion." Bao Xiaoyan immediately asked for leave from her leader and rushed to the blood center to donate blood. Due to the special condition, the patient needed a blood transfusion about once every 50 days, and as the condition worsened, the blood transfusion became more frequent. Since then, Bao Xiaoyan and 38 other volunteers have started a relay blood donation that lasted for more than three years, donating a total of 26,400 milliliters of blood.
This kind of love relay continues. In 2023, a 16-year-old girl with acute myeloid leukemia at Lu Daopei Hospital in Shunyi District urgently needed a blood transfusion. After receiving an emergency call for help, Bao Xiaoyan rushed to the hospital immediately. At that time, the girl had entered the warehouse waiting for a transplant, but because her red blood cells did not meet the standard, she could not undergo surgery and needed continuous blood transfusions, and the amount of blood transfusion was unknown. Bao Xiaoyan urgently summoned volunteers with the same blood type across the country through major WeChat groups. "It really is a call for a hundred responses. People came from all over the country, paying for their own flights, taking high-speed trains, and even driving overnight to Beijing to donate blood for the child. The relay was not over until the child's transplant was successful." Bao Xiaoyan said that there are many such stories, and every relay brings tears to her eyes.
Bao Xiaoyan has five relatives who also have rare blood types. They also resolutely joined the local rare blood type volunteer blood donation and rescue team and donated blood to save lives many times.
