Vinh hurriedly entrusted her store to someone and rode her motorbike for 30 kilometers to the institute.

Vinh, 51, from Thuong Tin district in Hanoi, has phenotype compatible blood. She has traveled from her home to the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (Hematology Institute) periodically to donate blood, platelets, or participate in local blood donation programs.

One day, while selling goods, she received a call from the Hematology Institute inviting her to donate blood because her blood type matched the patient’s. She asked a friend to look after her store and rushed to the institute immediately.

“My home was far from the institute, so I had to set off hurriedly. I returned home very late at night, but I felt so happy as I could save a person,” Vinh recalled the first time she donated her flood.

Another day, when it was heavily raining, Vinh was once again asked for blood donations and she was told to come to the institute in two days. However, she decided to set off immediately, because she knew the patient might be very worried. She felt worried that something bad might happen during the two days.

“I got wet to the bone when I reached the institute, but I was extraordinarily happy,” she said.

Vinh has donated blood over 30 times. She has donated phenotype compatible blood three times at the request of the Hematology Institute so far this year.

Explaining phenotype compatible blood, Doctor Tran Ngoc Que, Director of the National Blood Center, said the more transfusions a patient receives, the more they are exposed to unfamiliar antigens, and therer are higher risks of developing abnormal antibodies.

In this case, transfusing compatible ABO and Rh blood groups is not enough to ensure safety for patients, but they also need phenotype compatible blood.

The Thalassemia Center, belonging to the Hematology Institute, is currently treating approximately 3,000 patients. About 30 percent of them have received compatible phenotype transfusions, which help patients minimize transfusion complications due to blood type red blood cell incompatibility between donors and recipients. 

Vinh is one of the 20 individuals with compatible phenotype and rare blood type in 2024, honored at a program organized by the Hematology Institute on November 23.

The institute said the medical facility has received nearly 240 units of rare blood types and 2,458 units of compatible phenotype blood from treatment centers.

Vo Thu