Dubai: Four police officers recently stepped in to help save a woman who had just given birth and was in desperate need of a blood transfusion.
The public-spirited officers have since been promoted by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
On May 30 at 8pm Sergeant Jamal Abdullah Faraj, who works at Al Rifaa police station, received an SMS from one of his friends saying that a woman at Latifa Hospital was fighting for her life after giving birth to twins. One of her twins had died.
The woman’s O-negative blood group was relatively rare and doctors were struggling to find a donor. The woman was in critical condition.
Warrant officer Faraj, 43, who had the same blood group as the woman, immediately contacted duty officer Lieutenant Mohammad Shahrayar at the Dubai Police command and control centre at the operations room asking permission to go to Latifa Hospital to donate blood.
Lt Shahrayar in turn contacted First Lieutenant Khalil Kanji, the officer in charge, to check on the woman at the hospital.
“After inspecting the case in less than five minutes First Lt Kanji asked all other police officers in the operations room if any one of them had an O-negative blood group and was willing to help the woman by donating blood to save her life,” Warrant Officer Faraj told Gulf News.
He said three other police officers, Sergeant Yousuf Ahmad Hassan Abdullah, 30, Corporal Ali Mohammad Al Jazzei, 48, and Corporal Mohammad Abdul Safi, 36, in addition to Warrant Officer Faraj, said they had the same blood group and wanted to donate blood.
“We tried to reach the hospital as soon as possible but after doctors inspected our medical history unfortunately it was found that I was not able to donate blood because I was on antibiotics for flu,” said Warrant Officer Faraj.
He added that Corporal Abdul Safi was not able to donate blood because he had a low haemoglobin level.
“Corporal Al Jazzei was the lucky one who donated his blood to save the life of the woman,” said Warrant Officer Faraj.
Corporal Al Jazzei said that he was overwhelmed that he was able to help the woman.
“We just wanted to help the patient without knowing much about her. We came to know that a woman was fighting for her life in hospital and that she required a blood transfusion so we rushed to help her,” said Corporal Abdul Safi.
Commander in Chief of Dubai Police Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim told Gulf News that the four police officers were on patrol when one of them received an SMS appealing for blood donors to come forward to help a patient at Latifa Hospital.
“After reading the message, the policeman called the command and control centre for permission to help the patient,” he said.
He said the police officers were eager to help without asking for any further details about the woman. He thanked Shaikh Mohammad for his gesture of rewarding the four policemen for their altruism.
Lt Gen Dahi said First Lt Kanji and Lt Shahrayar will be honoured by Dubai Police for their initiative to help the woman.
Brigadier Omar Abdullah Al Shamsi, Director of the Department of Command and Control Centre at Dubai Police, said on Monday that when the police officers’ actions came to his attention he told Lt Gen Dahi who in turn praised them and told Shaikh Mohammad.
