HYDERABAD: A Srinivas, 44, underwent a heart valve replacement surgery at a city hospital. Like all other patients undergoing surgery, he too needed blood. But being O-ve (Bombay phenotype), a very rare blood group, he could not get any donor after a relentless search. Left without any option, doctors put him on iron supplements for seven days following which they withdrew two units of blood (medically called auto transfusion), and performed the surgery.

People like Srinivas are universal donors but when it comes to receiving blood, they have to depend on O-ve (Bombay phenotype) donors only, specialists say. "Considering his heart condition, it was necessary to perform the surgery at the earliest. After exhausting all the options of getting blood from other sources, we decided to harvest blood drawn from the patient and use it for surgery," said Dr Amrendra Singh, cardiac surgeon, Kamineni hospital, L B Nagar, who performed the surgery along with his team. This was second such case in Dr Singh's 10-year career.

Srinivas underwent the surgery with doctors taking extra precaution to conserve the blood. His two units of precious blood were used for the operation and has been discharged from the hospital. According to specialists, O-ve blood group is rare and its Bombay phenotype subgroup is its very rare variant. It is found in four (persons) out of ten lakh population.

"People with this blood group should donate blood for emergency situations. While negative blood groups are always short in supply, it is worse when it comes to O-ve (Bombay phenotype). In emergency situations such as accidents, it can be life threatening," says a surgeon from Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences. He added that auto transfusion is the only way for these patients but it works out only for elective surgeries and not emergencies.

Dr Ramesh Babu Byrapaneni, chief cardiologist and MD of Medwin hospital says that the hospital had done a similar case almost a decade ago. "We got a patient from the Jehovah's Witnesses (a quasi Christian Sect) which does not accept blood transfusion at all. For this patient, we had to go for auto transfusion," said Dr Ramesh. Further, Dr Ravi N Bathina, cardiologist at Care hospital added that it is a safe procedure and common in countries like US. Dr Ravi, who has worked in the US said that he did not come across such a case in his practice in India.

According to officials at NTR Blood Bank, it takes months and sometimes years to get this blood group. Last year, NTR blood bank could arrange four units of this blood group after much effort