I was supposed to have surgery today for a hip replacement. Yesterday they had to cancel it because they could not find any blood in Chiang Mai or Bangkok. They don't really need it but they like to have it just in case. They say they will be able to get some from the Red Cross later this week.

The problem was I have O negative blood. Apparently it is rare in Thailand. So if going for a planed surgery make sure you tell the doctor ahead of time if you think your blood might be rare. I think type O blood is the most common type but only 15% of them are negative.

Only .3% of Thais have Rhesus negative and why difficult to keep stocks versus 1% of Asians in general. There is actually a Rhesus negative blood registry http://www.centralbloodregister.com/index.php