The longer story:
This is for a dedicated Marine Conservationist/ Environmentalist called Chad, who has just had his second round of chemotherapy. (He has acute leukaemia). Up until now, this time round, he did not need blood/platelets. However he went into hospital on Sunday night with a fever, when they discovered that he currently has NO platelets in his system, and this is highly dangerous.
We have found, from the last call for blood/platelets, that the best chance of Chad getting the donations is by going to the specific Thai Red Cross centre which is next to Chulalongkorn hospital, where Chad is.
It would seem, from our experience, that blood goes where it is needed as a matter of priority, and therefore:
- O neg blood/platelets, while universal, is kept back in case of people with O neg blood needing it, and so there is no guarantee of O neg donors getting their platelets specifically to Chad. (But if you are O neg and you still want to donate, with the small chance of this getting to Chad, then great, please do!)