Gulf News

Meet Indian crash survivor who donated blood 39 times in UAE

37-YEAR-OLD SAYS HE WANTED TO CARRY FORWARD GOOD DEED OF OTHERS

- BY SUCHITRA BAJPAI CHAUDHARY Chief Reporter

What really touched me and my family was that none of them knew me personally and yet they volunteere­d to save my life by donating blood.”

Dilu Vincent Thottayel, 37, is a safety officer at a home care health centre in Abu Dhabi. Victim of a life-threatenin­g accident, he has made it a mission to donate blood once every two months. He was also afraid of needles, but his mission has helped him overcome this fear as well.

Sharing his story to commemorat­e World Blood Donor Day yesterday, Vincent said he had donated blood 39 times in the last nine years since he first arrived in the UAE.

The UAE was not the first place Vincent donated blood. Vincent, a native of Kerala, India, has not kept count of how many times he donated blood since his midtwentie­s. It all began because of a life-transformi­ng accident that he met with 15 years ago.

Dilu Vincent Thottayel | Safety officer

Life-threatenin­g crash

Recounting the fateful day in 2006, Vincent recreated the horror he underwent. “I was in my early 20s when I was involved in a life-threatenin­g automobile accident. There was a head-on collision between two heavy vehicles and I was a victim. I sustained severe head injuries and lost a lot of blood. I had to undergo complex surgeries. I was in need of blood donation,” he said, adding that he was semi-comatose at that time.

His father was working abroad and his mother had to appeal to the community to come forward and donate blood to save the life of her son. “The hospital asked my mother to arrange as many units of blood as was required. My mother sought the help of one of my friends who was a social worker. He spread the message at the local college and suddenly, many young students, both boys and girls, queued up at the hospital to donate blood. What really touched me and my family was that none of them knew me personally and yet they volunteere­d to save my life by donating blood,” said Vincent, who was then able to undergo brain surgery.

UAE move

In 2010, Vincent moved to the UAE and got a job in a security company where he was able to donate blood the first time when he had to go the National Security Institute (NSI) for training. Vincent recalled, “I still remember the date clearly — it was April 29, 2010.”

After that, there was no looking back, as Vincent found opportunit­ies every two-and-ahalf months to donate blood. “We don’t have to be a doctor to save lives. We can save the life of few people every year by being a blood donor. It’s a matter of making some time for the act and that act can change someone’s life.”

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Dilu Vincent Thottayel has made it a mission to donate blood once every two months, after surviving a lifethreat­ening crash.
■ Dilu Vincent Thottayel has made it a mission to donate blood once every two months, after surviving a lifethreat­ening crash.

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