Fijians Rush in to Help Sick Boy
Minutes later he received information that some people with the same blood group rushed to donate at the Levuka Hospital.
The love and caring spirit of Fijians added spark to the New Year celebrations this week which helped saved a sick boy of Ovalau Island.
Malakai Luma, 8, of Vuma Village was reported to have fallen sick suddenly and was hospitalised at the Levuka Hospital on Tuesday. There was a need for blood O+ type donation by the hospital while doctors were trying to determine the cause of sickness.
The call for help reached the Waka family of Seaqaqa, who are family friends of the sick boy.
The Waka family, father Jonathan Batisarisari, 30, wife Stephanie and their two sons Eliki, 5, and Sevanaia 3, returned to Fiji in 2020 after living in Canada. They own the Waka Farms, an agriculture business. The family is known as a social media influencer. The family, after being notified of the call for help, immediately setup a GoFundMe page on social media on Tuesday night to gather support for Malakai.
Their livestream video telecast Facebook received a lot of responses, including Fiji’s Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, and Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Lynda Tabuya. Mr Rabuka and Ms Tabuya’s inclusion drove responses sky high. Help came in droves starting with those living in Levuka.
“There was a huge outpouring of support for Malakai,” Mr Batisarisari said last night from Seaqaqa. He said their livestream video was posted at 8pm on Tuesday. Minutes later he received information that some people with the same blood group rushed to donate at the Levuka Hospital.
Some were turned away because the hospital had reached the amount they needed, he said. “What surprised me was the help that saved his life and gave him the chance to fight through the night. It was the power of love and care and strength of all our support from our amazing followers. Malakai is at CWM Hospital and in good hands. Thank you to everyone and the ministry of Health. We live in tiny islands and resources are hard to come by,” he said.
The Waka family is now planning to sell Tee-shirts with the word “Kai” printed on them to help sick Malakai.
Benefits of O+ blood?
Webmd.com reports that O+ blood is very important as a (mostly) universal red blood cell type. This blood type can be used in emergency situations such as traumatic bleeding or other types of emergency transfusions. It is also an important blood type as type “O+” patients can only receive type “O+” red blood cell transfusions.