A Chinese man recently donated peripheral blood stem cells to be used by a young leukaemia patient in the United States. 38-year-old Han Jin, from Suzhou, Anhui province was the stem cell donor who helped the young American.

The procedure to extract the stem cells took more than to hours, but was relatively painless. The blood was quickly sent to the United States to be transplanted into the recipient. 

Han said he was glad to help save a life: “I am so glad to see that with a little of my blood I can save a child’s life. I wish to extend my best wishes to the child I don’t know. I hope he will recover soon.”

While it is rare for blood stem cells of unrelated people to match, it can happen. According to Dr Zhu Peiyu from the Navy General Hospital, the chances are approximately 1 in 10,000.

Because the recipient was so young, he only needed 100 milliliters of blood. Doctors extracted more to ensure there were a sufficient number of viable stem cells for the procedure.

It was not the first time Han Jin had donated blood — he has been donating blood twice a year for more than 10 years. He first registered to be a stem cell donor in 2013 with the Suzhou’s blood centre.

He was contacted by doctors in June about the possibility of using his stem cells to save the child’s life. He quickly agreed to be a donor and a few months later the procedure went ahead. It was the first time that a resident from Suzhou was successfully matched with a US citizen.

China is strongly pushing for more stem cell donors to register with health organizations.  By 2013 the country had more than 1.83 million registered donors with 3,927 people successfully donating their stem cells to help others. 133 of those donations were to help people living in other countries.

Source: Anhui stem cell donor offers hope for US boy

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