Blood bank workers race to Wuhan for transplant delivery

A child with leukemia received a cord blood transplant at Wuhan Children's Hospital, Hubei province on Friday, thanks to a 16-hour drive from Shanghai to Wuhan to deliver the life-saving cord blood, despite Wuhan remaining on lockdown.

In March 2019 the child, whose name has been kept anonymous, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the hospital, where he has been receiving chemotherapy. A review of his bone marrow in October 2019 revealed a recurrence. His parents took him to other places to receive Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Immunotherapy, but his symptoms still didn't go into remission. The only treatment currently available to save the child's life is an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, to be performed as soon as possible.

They received the cord blood from the Shanghai Cord Blood Bank of China Stem Cell Group. However, transportation of the blood was a problem, because flights and high-speed rail services to Wuhan have all been canceled due to the novel coronavirus epidemic.

To solve the problem, a group of staff members from the blood bank decided to drive to Wuhan, despite knowing that would mean they would be quarantined for at least 14 days after returning to Shanghai. They departed in two cars at 2 pm on Thursday, slept only two hours in the expressway's service zone and arrived at the hospital in Wuhan at 8 am on Friday.

They also carried cord blood and mesenchymal stem cells urgently needed by three other post-transplant children. Noticing there was a shortage of medical supplies in Wuhan's hospital, they also brought five boxes of surgical masks, isolation suits and sterile caps.