A nine-year-old boy with a rare mix of blood types was saved by a team of scientists in Liverpool and later visited them at their lab to thank them. Qasim Rizwan, from Bolton, was diagnosed with autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA) in June last year, and doctors at Manchester Children's Hospital struggled to match his blood type.
Rare blood discovery
Scientists in Liverpool discovered he had a rare mix, including r'r', a subtype of the Rhesus system shared by roughly one in 10,000 people, with only around 50 blood donors of that type. Staff urgently defrosted and sent all six matching units of blood from its national frozen blood bank, as well as another unit from its facility in Colindale. One of the units Qasim received was the same age as him, donated when he was just eight days old.
A rare donor was also specifically called up to give blood. The transfusions were given alongside other medication, steroids and immunoglobulin to cure Qasim's condition.
Family's ordeal
AIHA is a rare disorder impacting around 1,200 people in the UK each year, causing the immune system to mistakenly target and destroy red blood cells faster than the body can make them. Symptoms include extreme tiredness, a rapid heartbeat and jaundice.
Qasim said: "I felt like I was going to die. I was really scared, hoping I would survive, and eventually I did. I really like the doctors, they helped me so much. They were so kind to me and they calmed me down if I was sad or angry. I feel like I have my daily routine and everything is back to normal. My life has restarted. I just feel unique and it's quite amazing that I have rare blood."
His mother, Mahnaz Nazar, a 43-year-old mental health support worker, said her son was 'a fit and healthy eight-year-old' before symptoms started. "Just a typical boisterous boy who loves sports, riding his bike, and he's very sharp. It came on quite suddenly – he went from being healthy to waking up one morning with yellow eyes and skin. At the doctors, everything was going haywire. His heart rate was high and he was getting breathless just speaking – the doctors were surprised he was still walking."
She added: "We were sent to Bolton Hospital. It took a week to figure out what was going on. It was terrifying because you don't know what was going on, all you see is your child getting worse and worse. He was deteriorating in front of our eyes, getting yellower, and he could not tolerate noise or light. Then we were sent to Manchester Children's Hospital. When they realised it was a blood issue, they were struggling to match his blood. They said they had some already stored in Liverpool, then after that was used, they said they had ran out and that they contacted someone who was a match and asked for a donation."
Visit to the lab
Qasim spent around three weeks in hospital overall. In August, with his father Rizwan Ahmed, 46, and brother Yusuf, he visited experts at the NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) national frozen blood bank in Liverpool who helped save his life during his treatment. He said: "I really enjoyed looking around the blood centre and seeing everything. I didn't know everybody did this in the background. Most of the people in the building saved my life and they are still saving lives too. Thank you to all the donors for donating blood to me because I have rare blood."
Ms Nazar has also since become a blood donor herself. She said: "The team at Manchester were absolutely amazing. Qasim wanted to know every little detail – what would happen next, the size of the needle – and they were very patient with him. I am very grateful to all the scientists and specialists at NHSBT who found out his blood types then found enough blood to keep him going. He thoroughly enjoyed his meeting and getting to know how things work. And blood donors are amazing. I can't thank them enough, without them, Qasim would probably not be here, he would not have survived, and we will be forever grateful for that."
Joanne Mathews, manager of the NHSBT frozen blood bank, said: "We work behind the scenes and almost never meet patients, so we loved hosting Qasim and his family. He met a few people who worked on his case and they all had big smiles. Qasim was so curious and polite – and he looked so cute in an adult lab coat."
Rachael Barber, paediatric intensive care consultant and medical director for Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, said: "Stories like Qasim's show just how vital blood donations are to us to enable us to care for children with rare blood types."
