A 59-year-old man from the Chinese city of Chengdu, who has donated blood more than 300 times in the last 20 years and has been known as the “blood donation king,” is now in need of financial assistance after he suffered an ischaemic stroke, according to The South China Morning Post. Yang Xiuwei, a Sichuan province resident, fell suddenly in late January when he went to visit a relative. His wife, Xie Suhua, took him to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a cerebral infarction, also referred to as a stroke.

Even after his heroic act in donating blood to benefit society, Yang is now burdened with severe medical bills and is appealing for help from the public during his recovery. His case elicited general sympathy, with many of them commiserating with him.

“A narrowing occurred in the cerebellum, vermis, and a primary blood vessel in his brain. The stroke happened in an acute manner,” a doctor stated. “He should be hospitalised for observation for 10 to 14 days.”

Yang Xiuwei’s wife, Xie, told SCMP that Yang works as a cleaner, while she does not have stable employment. Together, they earn 3,000 yuan (US$410) per month, relying on Yang’s mother, who is in her 90s, to subsidise their rent from her pension. Their son is a migrant worker in another city and did not return home to celebrate the Lunar New Year with them.

Xie paid a deposit of 2,000 yuan when her husband was hospitalised, but after just a week of treatment, the medical costs have already soared to 10,000 yuan.

“As this amount exceeds our financial capacity, we are planning to seek help from the public through a crowdfunding website,” she said.

It remains unclear what the total medical expenses for Yang will be.

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the guidelines issued by the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) and National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), imposing a blanket restriction on transgender persons, female sex workers, and gay men from donating blood.

Issuing notice, a bench, headed by CJI DY Chandrachud, directed the listing of the plea with a similar pending matter.

The plea, filed through advocate Ibad Mushtaq, said that the blanket prohibition provided under the 2017 Guidelines on Blood Donor Selection and Blood Donor Referral issued by the NBTC and NACO is a violation of the right to equality, dignity and life protected under Articles 14, 15, 17 and 21 of the Constitution.

“The impugned guidelines themselves are based on a highly prejudicial and presumptive view taken with regard to gay men in the 1980s in the United States of America and have since been revisited by majority of countries, including the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Israel and Canada, amongst others, the governments of which have come out with revised guidelines for blood donors which do not impose a blanket restriction on gay men or gender queer persons from donating blood,” it said.

The PIL said that a blanket restriction on blood donation is based on an assumption that a particular group of persons may be suffering from sexually transmitted diseases, however, screening of blood donors is conducted for every donation before a possible transfusion and in an era, where medical technology and education, especially in the field of haematology has progressed by leaps and bounds, a blanket prohibition emanating from a highly discriminatory view of gay persons, does not stand to reason.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)