A Perth man clinging to life in a Thailand hospital following a major car accident is in urgent need of blood after contracting a deadly infection. His family, now in a race against time, are making desperate pleas for ex-pats and travellers to donate a rare type of blood. James Lothian — a fly-in, fly-out mining construction worker — has been in the intensive care unit in Thailand’s Chonburi Hospital for the past five months.
The 41-year-old father was on a break from work and visiting his wife and five-year-old son when he was involved in a horrific car accident in Chonburi in March. He has undergone multiple emergency surgeries since the incident, including on his stomach and liver, in a bid to treat his catastrophic injuries. After a vital surgery — which involved operating on his large intestine — Mr Lothian took a turn for the worse and now urgently needs three pints of blood to save his life.
But the father-of-one has one of the rarer blood types — O-negative. Less than 10 per cent of the population have an O-negative blood type and it is routinely used in blood transfusions where blood type is unknown, meaning it is often in short supply and high demand. Mr Lothian’s sister, Stacey Lothian, has made a desperate plea for travellers or ex-pats whose blood type is O-negative to donate.
“After the accident, they’ve had to do surgery on his stomach, liver, and other things,” she said. “They’ve cut out sections of his large intestine and reconnected .