Blood
Three donors found in urgent nationwide search to save Adelaide mother with rare blood type, but more needed
Jul
Three suitable donors have been found during an urgent nationwide search for an Adelaide mother with a rare blood type in need of life-saving heart surgery.
Key points:
- An Adelaide mother with a rare blood type is waiting to have open heart surgery
- A national call-out for donors has found three suitable matches
- More matches are needed before the surgery can go ahead
Amira is awaiting open heart surgery at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and is expected to need at least 20 bags of blood before, during and after the procedure.
But the 37-year-old Port Adelaide woman has a rare combination of other blood types that need to be matched, prompting the Lifeblood branch of the Australian Red Cross to launch an urgent nationwide search for suitable donors.
On Saturday, Lifeblood said it was pleased to share that three suitable donors have been found so far to help Amira since the call-out on Thursday.
“This is encouraging news, and means we are about one third of the way to meeting the needs of this patient,” Lifeblood said in a statement.
The suitable donors are from South Australia, Queensland and Victoria.
Lifeblood reported a 20 per cent increase in donation bookings across the country on Thursday with people in South Australia in particular turning up in huge numbers to donate blood.
Appointments in Adelaide were up by 118 per cent compared to the same time last week with Lifeblood having to fly-in additional staff to he;p with the response, which is continuing today.
Lifeblood is urging people with blood types A and O to book a donation on their website.
“We thank everyone who has donated so far, and urge the community to continue to donate blood as we look for more matches,” it said.
It was three weeks ago after she had dropped off her two sons at school that Amira noticed something was wrong.
She started experiencing pain in her chest, back and shoulder and went to the emergency department, where doctors found she has a severely leaking aortic valve that needs to be replaced as soon as possible.
Earlier this week, her husband Ahmed Elhayes told the ABC his wife was not able to have the surgery until the required quantity of blood was found.
“That’s as simple as it is. We have a small window,” he said.
So far, more than 1,100 people have donated blood in the quest to find matches for Amira.
