"Thanks to the doctors and people who donated their blood to me. Thanks to all the Chinese people who showed solicitude for my health," said Parkinson, who is now recovering in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. He underwent surgery to remove his spleen and receiving 1,200-mililitres blood transfusion on March 8.

Parkinson, 27, is from a city near Manchester, England and came to China in February to teach English at Zilang middle school in the city. His girlfriend has been teaching in the city.

On March 7, he visited a doctor because of sore tonsils but forgot to tell the doctor about the pain in his abdomen.

The next afternoon, Parkinson suddenly vomited after he received an infusion. His blood pressure had dropped dramatically and he soon lost consciousness.

He was then immediately transported to a hospital affiliated with the Nantong Medical College and was diagnosed with massive bleeding of his spleen. An operation was necessary and he needed to receive a blood transfusion immediately.

However, his blood type is type O, with a negative Rh status, which is common in the West but very rare in China. Only one of 300 Chinese people has this type of blood - O Rh-To make things worse, the blood station at Nantong did not have this type of blood. But Parkinson had lost 4,000 millilitres of blood - 70 per cent of his entire volume of blood - and was in serious danger of dying.

According to a database at the local medical institution, only 15 out of 40,000 people in Nantong who have the same type of blood had voluntarily registered to donate their blood.

Eventually, five persons with a compatible blood type were contacted. After hearing the news, each of them quickly went to the hospital to donate 200 millilitres of blood.

The 1,000 millilitres of blood, as well as another 200 millilitres of blood transported from the Qidong blood station 100 kilometres away, were transfused into his body.

The operation to remove his spleen was a success and Parkinson was transported to a hospital in Hong Kong for a period of recovery by the International SOS a few days later. The International SOS is also covering his medical bill of about 20,000 yuan (US$2,425) spent in Nantong alone upon agreement with his medical insurers back in Britain.

"I would like to show my heartfelt thanks to people who donated their blood to me, and to the doctors, as well as officials of Nantong," said Parkinson, who returned to Nantong from Hong Kong last Thursday. "Without them, I would have gone to heaven."

Parkinson is now much improved in Nantong and plans to return to work in three weeks.

Three of the five volunteers are college students, one is a civil servant and one is an unemployed worker, Zhang Liping.

Zhang had donated 200 millilitres of blood five months earlier and was warned by doctors not to donate again until at least six months in order not to harm her health.

(China Daily March 26, 2002)