On reading this story, heartwarming as it is, I can’t help but think of this classic piece from The Onion.

“We urgently need RH- type-O blood. A child’s life is in danger.”

On January 31 on one domestic social networking site, a post went up saying that a rare blood type was urgently needed. It was accompanied by the story of a young child whose blood does not have enough platelets. The patient was named Yeo, a boy born less than one year ago. Yeo’s doctor suggested, “RH- type-O blood is difficult to find, so why not try posting on the internet?”

So Yeo’s mother, along with one friend and one relative, placed the heartstrings-tugging story on the internet. At about 9 pm on January 21 they put up two posts telling Yeo’s story using Twitter.

Twitter is a popular website for transmitting short messages. Followers (people registered on their friend’s Twitters) can immediately read them once uploaded. One Twitter user who posted about Yeo’s story was a power Twitter with 800 followers. The power Twitter immediately retransmitted the story, and it was instantly read by 300 of the 800 followers. By midnight, three hours later, thousands of people had read Yeo’s story and learned of his need for RH- type-O blood. And six of them had RH- type-O blood, a match for Yeo. 8.1 out of every 10,000 people in our country has RH- type-O blood, so for six such people to be turned up within three hours shows the reach and influence of social networking sites.

Because of time and location issues Yeo was not able to receive blood from all six people, but he is now safe and out of critical condition. Yeo’s mother said, “we are so thankful to the people who gave blood.” She added, “I am moved that there were so many people who immediately tried to help after learning my son’s story even though they did not know me at all.”