Derek Morgan Bush

Derek Morgan Bush made headlines in 1967 when his mother, June Rose Bush – a woman with an extremely rare blood type – successfully gave birth to him at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. [ [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60915FB345C14738DDDA00A94DE405B878AF1D3&scp=2&sq=%22June%20Rose%20Bush%22&st=cse New York Times] Retrieved 2008-08-26]

Medical complications of the birth

June Rose Bush's blood type was identified during her pregnancy as Rh null – a blood type known in only four other people in the world. Her son had not inherited her blood type and therefore, as his mother's blood was lacking all Rh antigens, her blood's antibodies were destroying her unborn son's blood cells. [ [http://www.mssm.edu/library/services/archives/pdf/150_booklet.pdf Mount Sinai School of Medicine] Retrieved 2008-08-26]

The four individuals with the rare blood type were identified as: a young boy in Tokyo; an Australian aborigine; an unidentified adult male in California; and Linda Mackall, a housewife in Alexandria, Virginia.

Mackall flew to New York to stand by as a blood donor, as the baby – delivered by Caesarean section when his mother's antibodies climbed to dangerous levels – needed transfusions to stay alive. The baby's father, Evan Bush, was recalled from military duty at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and charged with retrieving the two pints of blood donated by Mackall a few weeks earlier from the Rare Blood Donor Center of the American Association of Blood Banks.

Derek Morgan Bush was born six weeks premature and immediately given a transfusion, receiving several more transfusions over the next several days – of blood both Rh null and normal. One week after delivery, Derek Morgan Bush was able to go home.

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