A leukaemia patient yesterday underwent a unique operation, receiving a transplant of umbilical blood from his newly born baby brother and an unknown donor, a local hospital reported.

The boy is in a stable condition, hospital staff said.

On June 23 that Wang Xu, a 7-year-old boy who was diagnosed with leukaemia in April last year, found that his baby brother's umbilical blood was the same rare blood type as his.

Doctors previously advised his mother Shang Yuhui, 35, to have a second child in the hope that the blood type would be the same.

The new baby, who came into the world this May, did not fail his parents' expectation as the blood type was a perfect match.

"I just want to do whatever a mother can do to save her child," Shang said at that time.

Wang Xu received the transplant operation in the bacteria-free ward at the No 4 Hospital affiliated with Harbin Medical University yesterday, where he had 100 cubic centimetres of umbilical blood transplanted from his brother and another 100 cubic centimetres from the country's only umbilical blood station in Tianjin.

"Because the number of haematopoietic cells from the umbilical blood of the new baby was not enough, we sought help from the station in Tianjin and they found a good match," said Tian Yuyang, a doctor who took part in the operation.

"The boy is lucky," Tian said, as the chance of finding a matching blood sample from non-relatives is about one in 4 million.

"The boy is in good spirits and can eat without help," he said.

However, Wang still has to spend the next 15 days under close watch, which doctors said was the most likely rejection period.

Yesterday, Shang thanked the public for all the support she received.

"Without public attention and kind-hearted people, my son would not be alive now," Shang said.

Both Wang Xu's parents are farmers who have spent every penny on his treatment.

Due to their lack of money, the hospital shouldered a large portion of the operation costs, which amounted to about 300,000 yuan (US$ 37,500). The family only paid about one-tenth, said Tian.

(China Daily July 25, 2006)