An Australian FIFO worker is desperately fighting for his life in a Thai hospital.
James Lothian, from Perth, has been in the intensive care unit at Chonburi Hospital since March after suffering catastrophic injuries in a car crash.
After five months of treatment, including several emergency surgeries on his stomach and liver, he has contracted a life-threatening infection and needs 1.7 litres of O-negative blood, which must come from at least three donors.
In Australia, only 9 percent of people have O-negative blood, but in Thailand it is much rarer: only 0.3 percent of the population.
Mr Lothian’s family has appealed to all Australians travelling to or living in Thailand who have O negative blood to donate if they can.
“After the accident, he had to have surgery on his stomach, liver and other things,” his sister Stacey Lothian told the Western Australia.
‘They cut out sections of his large intestine and reconnected them.
‘That surgery was unsuccessful and her tissue died and she had to undergo another surgery but that also failed.’
Australian James Lothian (pictured) is desperately fighting for his life in a Thai hospital as he urgently needs donations of his rare blood type.
Mr Lothian, 41, also recently contracted sepsis, a potentially fatal blood poisoning condition that requires an emergency blood transfusion.
“He also has an infection in his large intestine and they can’t operate on him now, they need to remove the infected blood from his body and replace it with clean blood,” his sister said.
Doctors say they cannot operate until they get more donations of Mr Lothian’s blood type.
His brother, who is also O negative, donated blood in June but will not be able to do so again until September. None of his three other siblings have the rare blood type.
Lothian’s 65-year-old father, who is a match, flew to Thailand on Friday to donate, but at least two more people with O-negative blood will need to donate.
Ms. Lothian, who has created a GoFundMe For his brother, he has been posting everything on Thai expat sites to try to get donors.
“If anyone travelling there is O negative, please donate. It made me cry to see how many people have offered to help, but it’s a very rare blood type,” she said.
“It’s a bit scary how many Australians go there on holiday. The fact that there is no O-negative blood in Thailand is alarming.”
Mr. Lothian has been in a break from work and visiting his wife and five-year-old son when he was involved in the horrific car accident in Chonburi.
James Lothian (pictured), a mine worker flown in from Perth, has been in the intensive care unit at Chonburi Hospital since March after suffering catastrophic injuries in a car accident.
In addition to being used for transfusions of people who have that blood type, O-negative is also regularly used in transfusions where a person’s blood type is unknown.
Talking to him Telegraph Last year, Dr Issrang Nuchprayoon, a professor at Chulalongkorn University and an adviser to the Thai Red Cross, said there is often a shortage of O-negative blood in Thailand.
“There is always the threat that when people need blood (O negative) we won’t have it.”
Australians travelling to South-east Asia have been warned it is vital to know their blood type in case they need a transfusion during their stay.