An urgent appeal for a rare blood type has been launched to save the life of a British man in an Iloilo hospital.
Jason Smith, aged 51, was involved in a motorcycle accident in Kalibo on Wednesday (January 10) and remains in a critical condition with kidney failure.
Crucial operations will be needed to save his life, but these cannot get underway until St Paul’s Hospital can get hold of the right type of blood donations.
Jason is blood type O Negative, which is fairly rare in the UK, but even more so in the Philippines, where just 0.1 per cent of the population share the same type.
As well as appealing for blood donors, Jason’s friends and family have set up a Just Giving page to raise funds for his ongoing treatment. In just a few days more than £6,000 has been raised towards a £20,000 (1,400,000 peso) target.
Speaking to the Canvey Island Echo, Jason’s brother-in-law Stuart Lewis said: “It’s been tough, it is really awful, but we have been working through the night to see what we can do.
“We have a little consortium going on, and we flew one of our mates out who landed yesterday morning, and hopefully we can get a few facts about the situation.
“But we have been told he is a very critical state so we do not have much time.
“We have had an amazing response in the Philippines, we know a few people out there and one of our friend’s wife owns a business in the Philippines, so she put an appeal out which reached 60,000 people.
“If he pulls through then there will still be a lot of work, he needs the operations but he will need to rehabilitate, recover and get home as well, unfortunately it may be a long process and we are going to need a lot more support.”
Jason has lived in the Philippines for several years and is married to a Filipina named Maffi. She suffered a broken leg in the accident, but is recovering.
Anyone able to donate blood should visit St Paul’s Hospital on General Luna Street, Iloilo City, and ask for Dr Canuoneio.
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