Three Doners Completed Bone Marrow Donation in Shanghai General Hospital and Huashan Hospital

Link of the original article: https://j.021east.com/p/1697511559031525

According to reporter Liu Yilin from Eastday on October 17, three boys completed their hematopoietic stem cells donation on the same morning in Huashan Hospital (Chinese Red Cross Hospital) and Shanghai General Hospital (Shanghai Red Cross Hospital), meaningfully making them Shanghai's 598th, 599th and 600th donors respectively. What’s worth mentioning, this is also the first time that Shanghai completed three hematopoietic stem cells donations on the same day.

The three donors, Li Zhufeng, Pan Deng and Li Xin, coming from Songjiang, Jinshan and Minhang district respectively, were engaged in different jobs and have very different personalities. However, they share a common wish-- to donate hematopoietic stem cells and pass on the hope of life, thus saving as more lives as possible.

The 598th donor Li Zhufeng, working as a grid supervisor at the City Transportation Center in Sheshan Town, Songjiang District, has been participating in blood donation various times since he was in college, and so far he has accumulated a whole blood donation volume of 1,200ML in total. It was his constant blood donation that enabled him to learn about hematopoietic stem cell and then enrolled at the China Marrow Donor Program in 2021, waiting for a marrow match.

As a grid supervisor, Li drives near 40 kilometers per day, inspecting a total area of 4.77 square kilometers. 32 bridges, 25 rivers and 20 roads in the grid area are all at his fingertips. In 2022, when typhoon "Meihua" stroke the city, he found a man who was unfortunately hit by the fallen tree in the early morning and saved his life when he was on duty. When the news that Li is goning to donate his hematopoietic stem cells came to Li’s colleagues, they all felt surprised at first but later found it very reasonable, since Li is such a person who is always earnest, full of responsibility and keeps a low profile.

The 599th donor, Pan Deng, is a “Second Red Cross Generation” whose mother is a Red Cross cadre in Tinglin Town, Jinshan District. Since middle school, Pan has been volunteering with his mom and has been quite enthusiastic about various public welfare activities.

Influenced by his mother, in August 2021, Pan joined the China Marrow Donor Program during a hematopoietic stem cell voluntary enrollment activity. After passing the high-resolution test and comprehensive physical examination, on September 25, 2023, Pan solemnly signed his name on the consent form for donating hematopoietic stem cells. He said, “Jinshan District has a tradition of electing ‘Jinshan noble people’. I just did what I should do, and I hope that more and more young people will come and join us. ” What’s more, Mr Pan, who is newly admitted to Jinshan Agricultural Bank this year, recently managed to stop a large amount of telecommunication fraud. Meanwhile, he is also the first hematopoietic stem cell donor in the Shanghai Agricultural Bank system.

The 600th donor, Li Xin, waited the longest among the three. He joined the China Marrow Donor Program when he was away at college. He said, “Ten years are too long to keep myself anticipaitng, but it is still worth waiting and I am very glad that there is finally a match.” Currently, Li Xin works in a network technology company in Shanghai. In order to complete the donation successfully, he offered to get his donnation sample transferred to the Shanghai branch bank for hematopoietic stem cells to be ready with the pre-donation physical examines and relative preparations.

In daily life, Li Xin is an enthusiastic boy who enjoys the sunshine and loves outdoor sports the most, such as traveling, hiking, skydiving, scuba-diving and so on. He is always full of vitality and has long been ready for the blood donation. “Donating blood doesn’t harm your health, not to mention it can save people’s lives. I only have one thought, that is to make someone else who is suffering from the pain very far away can also have the opportunity to recover, thus enjoying the nature, sunshine and beauty of life as I do.” Li Xin said.

On October 17, at the donation site, there were 19 other medical workers from Shanghai General Hospital also registered to join the China Marrow Donor Program, the youngest among whom is only 21 years old.

Born in 2000, Zhang Hui, a nurse from the Geriatrics Department, just joined Shanghai General Hospital this year. After learning that the hospital called on its staff to join the China Marrow Donor Program, Zhang Hui did not hesitate to enroll at all. “As a nurse, I have seen many patients suffering from blood diseases in the clinic. All I could do before was to use my nursing skills to alleviate their painfulness, but now I hope that someday I will have the opportunity to provide them with another form of help through mty donation”, Zhang Hui said.

Three medical workers in Shanghai General Hospital successfully donated their hematopoietic stem cells in the past few years. Docter Zha Xiaolong from the Trauma Center, completed the whole process from mobilization to sample collection in just 20 days, setting a record for the shortest period for hematopoietic stem cell donation in Shanghai as well.

Docter Song Xianmin, director of the hematology department of Shanghai General Hospital, told the reporter that as one of the Shanghai Red Cross Hospitals, Shanghai General Hospital has continuously ranked first among the city’s other hospitals in the number of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants completed since 2018. By October 10, 2023, the hospital had completed 288 cases of hematopoietic stem cell donation and sampling collection, accounting for nearly half (48%) of all cases collected in Shanghai. Currently, the Hematology Department of Shanghai General Hospital has 121 beds, including 30 asepsis wards, the area of which ranks one of the largest asepsis awards in Shanghai.

Shanghai General hospital has made obvious achievement in the area of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, especially in transplantation for elderly patients and hemi-compatible transplantation, breaking the “60 years old forbidden line” of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and has repeatedly set new records of the maximum age for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation treatment in Shanghai. It has also completed a total amount of nearly 200 leukemia transplantation surgeries for patients aged over 55 years old, among whom the highest age were up to 71 years old.

It is reported that by the end of the first ten days in October 2023, the cumulative sample amount of the China Marrow Donor Program has reached 3.28 million, providing human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching retrieval services for more than 117,000 patients with hematological disorders, and more than 16,000 cases of non-blood-related hematopoietic stem cell donations are completed successfully.

There are more than 170,000 volunteers from all walks of life in the Shanghai Branch of the China Marrow Donor Program who are always ready to bring the hope of life to patients with blood diseases. From 1996 when the first non-consanguineous hematopoietic stem cell donation was realized in Shanghai, which was also the first in the whole country, to today, in 2023, when the 600th donation has been completed, the Red Cross volunteers have been actively fulfilling their mission. Among these lovely volunteers, there are dedicated medical workers and deliverymen, international students who come back to their homeland from thousands of miles away in order to save lives, as well as young students who donate twice in half a year without any hesitation.They have spread the seeds of life to countless patients who have blood disorders, and demonstrated the spirit of "humanity, fraternity, and devotion" with their practical actions.