A florist with the rare 'Bombay' blood group travelled more than 400 kilometres by a car from Shirdi in Maharashtra to Madhya Pradesh to help save the life of a 30-year-old woman who was critically ill, officials said.

Ravindra Ashtekar, 36, who runs a wholesale flower business in Shirdi, reached Indore in MP on May 25 and donated blood to the woman, admitted to a hospital here, following which her condition has improved, they said.

"When I came to know about the critical condition of this woman through a group of blood donors on WhatsApp, I left for Indore in a friend's car, travelling about 440 kilometres. I obviously feel good because I could make some contribution from my side in saving the woman's life," Ashtekar told PTI on Tuesday.

He said in the last 10 years, he has donated blood to the needy patients eight times in his home state Maharashtra as well as in different cities of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Dr Ashok Yadav, head of the transfusion medicine department at the government-run Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital here, on Tuesday said the woman had been accidentally administered 'O' positive group blood during an operation for an obstetric ailment in another hospital.

Due to this, her condition deteriorated and kidneys were also affected, he said.

"When the woman was sent to Roberts Nursing Home in Indore after her condition deteriorated, her haemoglobin level had fallen to around 4 grams per decilitre, whereas the haemoglobin level of a healthy woman should be 12 to 15 grams per decilitre," he said.

After being administered four units of 'Bombay' blood, the woman's condition has become better, Yadav said.

If the woman was not given blood of this rare group on time, her life could have been in danger, he said.

Ashok Nayak, head of the blood call centre at Indore's social organisation Damodar Yuva Sangathan, helped in the collection of 'Bombay' group blood for the woman patient.

Two units of blood of this group were transported by air from Nagpur to Indore for the woman, and her sister also donated one unit of blood in Indore, Nayak said.

'Bombay' blood group, said to be discovered in 1952, is rare in which there is the absence of H antigen and presence of anti-H antibodies. Patients carrying this blood can receive transfusion only from a person from within this group.

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