We report the case of a 5-year-old girl with a rare P-null phenotype who presented for a neurosurgical procedure at our center. The case is unique as this patient was one of the two P-null phenotype cases reported in India and we report how we could successfully arrange a rare blood unit for her. As it was challenging to find a donor for her, autologous blood was collected. Despite iron supplementation and erythropoietin injections, her hemoglobin remained low and the required number of autologous units could not be collected. As a consequence of the search initiated with the international and regional rare donor registries, a donor was identified in a remote village in India. Despite the logistic hurdles due to the COVID pandemic, the blood could be transported safely for performing the surgery. A centralized database of rare donors needs to be established to meet such requirements.

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Red-breasted Parakeet is one among the most widespread parakeets of the world.  The ‘Near Threatened’ bird has been in pet trade for long and is already known as a feral bird from major cities in India.  The biodiversity of India has been threatened by many alien invasive species and some have been of a serious threat to native species pushing them to extinction.  Though Red-breasted Parakeet with a limited population in many of the cities is of no immediate threat, an increase in population can be of serious threat to native bird species.  In this paper, we report the new sighting of Red-breasted Parakeet from Vellayani-Punjakari wetlands, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and discuss the possible threats this particular species can impart to the native bird diversity.

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