A volume of 1,200 milliliters of rhesus (RH) A-negative blood has been donated by three Chinese citizens and was sent to Beijing to save an American scientist on Thursday.

Erwin Engst, who has been working in China since 1946, suffers from an alimentary canal haemorrhage and urgently needed blood. However, his RH negative blood type is quite rare in China with the ratio standing at four per 10,000.

In 2001, Engst received treatment for lung infection at the Beijing Union Medical College Hospital. Later his alimentary canal began to hemorrhage badly, according to the hospital.

Since then, the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center had been searching for this type throughout the country but got far less than he needed.

Only 600 milliliters of RH negative was kept in the blood center when the patient was getting worse on Oct. 20. The center immediately called Shenzhen for help.

Eleven donors of this rare blood type were on the roster but only three of them were reached. At 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, each donated 400 milliliters of blood to the American friend.

A doctor in Beijing Red Cross Blood Center named Yang Yin carried the blood back to Beijing by Thursday morning.

Engst and his wife, Joan Hinton, came from the United States and have both been working in China before New China was born. Since then, they have made great contributions to the development of the milk industry and have served as consultants of the Ministry of Machine-building Industry.

(Xinhua News Agency October 23, 2003)