I am writing this note with the hope that anyone living in Korea with a blood type of B rh negative (B-) would be willing to help a 19 year old boy who has recently been diagnosed with lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. I went to visit him in the hospital today, and now have specific information about him.
His name is YooWoon Jeon and he just graduated from high school in February. He has been sick since last October, but was just diagnosed last week. He will require 5-6 chemotherapy treatments, every three weeks. After each treatment he requires 6 doses of platelet, a part of human blood. The problem is, his blood type (B-), is not at all common in Korea. B+ is quite common, but B- is not. If a B- person gets B+blood, it can create problems. Platelet has a storage life of only one week, so its not easy to ship it from other countries.
There are 100's of thousands of expats in Korea, teachers, business people, engineers, etc... B- occurs much more reqularly in foreign populations than in Korea. That is why I am reaching out to you! Korea has given me so much, and I often wonder how I can return at least a little bit of it. This is one way. I happen to have B- so I went to the hospital today, and am scheduled to give the platelet on Monday. I will just lie down and while I watch a movie or chill out, my blood will be pumped into a machine that will take out the platelet and put the rest of my blood back into my body. The pain is about the same amount as getting a needle.
YooWoon just graduated from high school, and his dream is to go to Yonsei University. Instead, he is in the Yonsei Severence Hospital. If we can all come together, we can help him get back on his feet and he can get back to studying!
Please ask your friends to pass this info around.
His father is called Jay John in English, his Korean name is Jeon Jeong woo (전정우). His father works for the Korean branch of Cray Valley, a chemical company. His English is very good, so you wouldn't have to worry about communication issues.
He can be contacted at:
Jay
010-5048-7678
jeongwoo.jeon@crayvalley.com
If you have any additional questions, feel free to call me directly, 010-6801-0731.
The rest of the message, with information about Lymphoma and platelet donation, can be found on the "Every Expat in Korea" Facebook page.
Update: There's a new Facebook page "Save A 19 Year old Korean Boy!"
11 comments:
Another reason for me to figure out what my darn blood type is (also to avoid that embarrassing silence when a Korean asks me and I confess that I don't know).
Incidentally, there aren't "hundreds of thousands" of expats in Korea, at least not English-speaking ones. Including short-term tourists, there aren't many more than 120,000 at any given time.
I don't think she's including only English-speaking ones, b/c the KTO puts her in touch with loads of different people in a half-dozen languages. Of course, an English-language message on a site dominated by English speakers will reach only a certain amount of people, but, well, that's' neither here nor there.
I used to give blood frequently in the US in college, even though I hate blood and would always get really woozy. Even so, I never knew my blood type until I made Korean friends in Pittsburgh and they asked me about it. I had to check my Blood Bank card, probably the only time I used that thing.
How do you go about finding out your blood type in Korea?
Too bad. Blood type: AB RH: negative.
Why are they so intrigued by blood anyways? That's why I always carry a wooden stake.
Funny how everyone cares so much about blood type in a country that doesn't even do blood transfusions.
Alex, I guess you could just ask the doctor. As part of the yearly health check they draw blood, so you could probably ask him/her then, I assume they'd know how to figure it out.
Or, you could make it fun . . . ask them to guess based on your personality before the run the tests. Koreans always think my bloodtype is A.
Funny how everyone cares so much about blood type in a country that doesn't even do blood transfusions.
Huh?
Last month I tried to give blood at a bloodmobile at my school but could not. They require that you speak Korean (no translators allowed) and you must not have left the country in the last six months. Maybe others will have more luck.
The travel restrictions are not so unusual. I came to Hawaii for school at the beginning of August 2006, but it wasn't until sometime in 2008 before I was able to donate blood, thanks to Seoul's close proximity to North Korea and its malaria problem.
The interview screening is pretty thorough, and if they don't have it in English, I would imagine it would be imprudent to have someone who can't speak Korean go through the interview. Since many of the questions would deal with homosexuality, I would imagine there are privacy restrictions, too (and an assumption that people might not be so honest in front of a translating friend or co-worker).
I used to give blood a lot until I started fainting dead away. I'm not really afraid of the sight of blood. So, no clue. But the Red Cross banned me from giving. Getting a hand addressed letter from the Red Cross shortly after a blood donation and not knowing the purpose of the letter is a rather scary thing, I might add.
The Canadian process has been radically changed since I started giving. There's even a presumption you're giving blood to save some kind of face with friends/coworkers and they let you check a secret box that says "take my donation but dump it". So I can see for safety sake Korea's Red Cross needs you to fully comprehend every step, form, question, and instruction. Kushibo I think touches on a point expats in Korea react to badly. Koreans refusing to accept expat blood donations. What might strike a few people as racism should first probably be assumed to be strict blood collection protocols. Although probably well meaning foreigners attempting to donate might be rebuffed in not subtle English. "No no no foreigners! No blood! No!"
Do Koreans get cookies and donuts after giving blood? I used to tell my kids that. You never saw such eager future blood donors after finding out you just have to give up a pint and then you can sit and eat cookies all day.
And like Brian I have no clue about my blood type. I remember in Seattle my Japanese doctor and his Japanese nurses musing over my blood type and commenting I don't fit the personality. Maybe I'm type B which means you're supposed to be a prick.
To answer Durp's question, blood types = personality I think is a Japanese bit of pseudoscience (off the top of my head invented by a Japanese doctor during WWII) that has made its way to Korea. For all the Japan hate that goes on and the belief nothing good comes out of Japan, they really don't know how many cultural ideas in Korean culture are taken right from Japan.
I don't know about little kids, but most KoKo adults with whom I've talked about blood type and personality know directly or have an inkling that the idea came from Japan.
A lot more than, say, Americans who know that "America's Funniest Home Videos" came from Japan. ;)
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