FROM: http://cafedavid.multiply.com/journal/item/80
Why don't people just take 10 seconds to do some checking before
forwarding SMS or emails?
The next day, The Star reported on this SMS:
CHECK BEFORE PASSING ON SMS
PENANG: The next time you receive an SMS asking for help to spread
word about the need for a rare blood type to save someone's life,
check with the hospital before doing so.
In the case of patient Yau Jia Xin, nine, with an O negative blood
type, requests for the rare blood group continued being made
nationwide even after sufficient blood had been secured on
Saturday.
Nurse P.C. Teo, 40, said she got the help of two Chinese newspapers
on Thursday to appeal for the blood after learning that her
daughter needed surgery to remove a benign tumour in her
heart.
On Saturday, the hospital had already obtained the blood needed
but the SMS suddenly started circulating without my
knowledge.
I believe it was done with good intentions and I need to say
'thank you.' We already have enough blood, she said outside the
intensive care unit of Lam Wah Ee Hospital after her daughter had
successfully undergone a three-hour operation to remove the tumour
yesterday.
Teo said her handphone was flooded with messages and calls from
people all over the country conveying their concern and verifying
the message, while some potential donors also turned up at the
hospital.
She said Jia Yin, a Year Three student of SJK(C) Keong Hoe,
suddenly suffered a stroke at school on Wednesday, later found to
have been caused by a tumour in her heart, a rare condition called
atrial myxoma.
Lam Wah Ee blood bank's consultant
pathologist Dr P.K. Das, who also received the SMS, said the hospital had obtained six units of O negative
blood on Saturday after calling donors with the rare blood group
registered with the hospital.
We advise those with rare blood types to register with the
hospital so that we can call them in future if the need arises, he
said.
