Border News Agency
Kyauktaw, June 26.

An elderly woman in Kyauktaw Township passed away on June 19 after emergency blood could not be found in time.

She was identified as 74-year-old Daw Khaing Sein Hla, a resident of the car stop area in War Taung Village, Kyauktaw Township.

According to family members, she visited a clinic in Kyauktaw Township, where she was diagnosed with a ruptured gastric artery.

They said she passed away on the evening of June 19, as blood could not be found in time to treat the condition.

“We couldn’t find blood no matter how hard we tried. We searched the whole day, through the rain and wind. The phone lines being down made it even worse. In the past, we could quickly find matching blood donors just by making a few calls. But now, we had to go around by motorbike, asking relatives if they had the same blood type. If not, we had to return and keep searching and all of that took so much time. By the time we finally found a donor, it was too late to transfuse the blood. She had already passed away,” a family member told Border News Agency.

Family members said they had reached out to blood donor groups and civil society organizations in Kyauktaw for help.

Although they eventually managed to find one unit of the required type A blood, it was too late to perform the transfusion, and she passed away before it could be administered, according to the family.

“We could have consoled ourselves if she had passed away due to old age – not because we couldn’t find blood. But if it had been someone younger who died because of a lack of blood, I don’t think anyone could accept that either. By the time we informed the doctors that we had finally found a blood donor, she had already weakened and passed away shortly after,” a family member told Border News Agency.

Arakanese people say that it has become increasingly difficult to find emergency blood donors in areas controlled by the Arakan Army, as phone and internet connections are often cut off, making it impossible to reach regular donors in time.

They also say that many people have left the region in search of job opportunities elsewhere, which has further reduced the number of available blood donors.

Arakanese people say that in the past, it was easier to access emergency blood when needed because there were active blood donor groups and regular volunteers in the region.

However, since the resurgent battles began, road blockades imposed by the Myanmar junta and the shutdown of phone and internet services have made it difficult to obtain blood in urgent situations.

In addition, blood donor organizations are reportedly struggling to operate as usual due to financial constraints, further worsening the shortage of accessible blood.

Because of the blood shortage, blood donor groups say patients needing blood have to buy one unit of type A blood for around 200,000 kyats, type AB blood for about 250,000 kyats, and type B or O blood for between 100,000 to 150,000 kyats.

In the Arakan region, due to Myanmar junta airstrikes and injuries caused by mines and leftover military explosives, many people urgently need blood. However, they are unable to find it, resulting in a growing number of deaths, according to local residents.