Neowell Vann Houtton, Age 12, urgent appeal for donation of blood type O Positive R1 R1

By Nilakrisna James 

Kota Kinabalu, Sabah—An urgent appeal to the public is made to all those whose blood type is O-Positive to come forward and donate blood at Hospital Likas, Kingfisher, in Kota Kinabalu to save the life of 12 year old Neowell Vann Houtton, whose HB blood level is now at 6.7 and requiring urgent blood transfusion to save his life.

Neowell is suffering from thalassemia major and requires monthly blood transfusions but his rare blood type of O-Positive R1R1 means that access to the correct blood type is difficult. The normal HB level is 13 and Neowell’s blood level is now considered critical.

“As a result of the difficulty of getting enough blood into his system on time, Neowell has just regressed over the years and he is now mentally and physically challenged as a direct result of inability to access blood transfusions on time,” said his mother, Selly Onong, in a joint press statement with activist and lawyer, Nilakrisna James.

Nilakrisna added that she has monitored the condition of the boy since she first appealed for public blood donation to save Neowell’s life seven years ago. “This is the fourth time in 7 years that I am assisting this family to make a public appeal to save Neowell’s life. We are not here to debate whether he is to live or die with his present condition as our basic urgent appeal is to save his life with blood donation. We need two packs urgently right now and on a monthly basis we need a group of good Samaritans who know that they are the correct blood match to just take turns to donate blood to keep Neowell alive.”

“Thalassemia is apparently the most common genetic disorder in Malaysia. We need to focus on the ways we can make it easier for people with the disorder to have access to donors for blood transfusions so that they are not on waiting lists till it becomes critical. Selly has begged the hospital

Neowell Vann Houtton and his brother

to release the names and identities of donors with the correct blood match to Neowell so that she can contact them directly to save her son’s life if and when it reaches critical levels like this but the hospital does not do this. We have no means of knowing who is O-Positive R1R1 unless every blood donor makes a specific request and contact the mother themselves to volunteer as an emergency or regular donor to Neowell. If you are prepared to do this please contact me on my handphone 0168459287 or contact Neowell’s mother, Selly, on 0107826955,” said Nilakrisna.

All O-Positive blood type donors are urgently requested to go to Hospital Likas Blood Donation unit and make a blood donation request to the name: NEOWELL VANN HOUTTON, urgently and as soon as possible.