It’s going to take the rarest blood in the world to save a little Florida girl’s life.
The chances of finding a blood match for 2-year-old Zainab Mughal were less than 4%, so the organization OneBlood joined her family on a round-the-world search.
Zainab suffers from a rare and aggressive form of cancer called neuroblastoma, in which a solid tumor arises in the nervous system, outside of the brain.
The tumor was found in her stomach 2 months ago, but the family and doctors believe it could have been present up to 10 months ago.
Her diagnosis was “high risk,” which means she has only a 40-50% chance of surviving the next 5 years without successful treatment.
Many of us don’t realize that in addition to blood having a type (A, B, O, or AB), our red blood cells have antigens on them. Antigens are what antibodies look for in a match so they don’t start attacking a cell.
Zainab’s blood is missing the Indian-B antigen, which is very common in other people. Unfortunately for the toddler, any blood transfusion she receives has to come from a blood type match AND another person missing this antigen, or else her body will reject the blood.
Because of the different genetic profiles of people from different ethnic backgrounds, the exact type of blood she needs can only be found in people hailing from Iran, Pakistan, and India.
And as if that weren’t enough of a barrier to success, the organization needs to find at least 7-10 donors who can stagger their blood donations to cover the entirety of Zainab’s cancer treatments.
OneBlood is working with the American Rare Donor Program which also searches the world for rare blood.
The good news is that three donors have been located so far!
One donation was identified by the UK’s International Blood Group Reference Laboratory (IBGRL) and flown to Florida from Nottingham, England.
The 50-year-old donor of British-Indian origin said she was “very humbled” to play a “small part” in helping Zainab. She told the BBC that the campaign was helping to raise awareness:
“I do hope the publicity encourages more people to donate, especially from the Asian community. Even a single donation can make a massive difference to someone who needs it.”
The other two units came from U.S. donors. However, this won’t be enough. While she’s currently getting chemotherapy and her tumor is shrinking, she’ll need blood for the foreseeable future.
She will also need two bone marrow transplants in order to gain enough strength to go through stronger chemo. Those transplants are another reason she will need so much blood.
The full criteria for a donor must be: 1) someone fit to donate blood, 2) who is exclusively of Pakistani, Iranian, or Indian origin (meaning the donor’s birth parents are both from the area), 3) type O or A, and 4) missing the Indian-B antigen.
Sadly, none of Zainab’s family are matches.
But people are hearing their plea. According to NTD, over 1000 potential donors have already turned out to have their blood tested, though none were a match.
Blood drives are now being held all over the country, often led by Islamic groups and mosques (because of the regional blood type need), to look for more.
One Muslim religious leader even said:
“Prayers and thoughts are not enough. Sometimes God expects us to go further…”
And it was a heartwarming scene outside his mosque where dozens of people were lined up to donate.
Because so many people who wouldn’t normally be donating blood have come out to help Zainab, there’s been an influx of blood from Middle Eastern people which will go to help others in need.
Zainab’s case brings home the importance of maintaining diverse blood supplies around the world, and the importance of programs like One Blood to make things a little easier. Because Florida has such a diverse population, with immigrants from around the world who give blood, the organization is often called upon to send blood elsewhere in North America. They both store rare units long-term (in their -80-degree freezer) and keep a database of volunteers who agree to be called upon if someone is in need of a transfusion.
If you think you might be a match or want to learn more about Zainab’s story, OneBlood has created a page just for her that you can visit here.
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