Virtual Blood Drive

On the day Jack was born, massive blood transfusion was one of the medical interventions that saved Heather’s life. What started as a normal progressing scheduled induction that moved along perfectly ended up as a very near nightmare. After pushing for several hours with little movement, an emergency c-section was required for Jack’s health and safety. Heather experienced severe hemorrhaging and uterine atony, identified immediately following Jack’s delivery. The hemorrhaging failed to stabilize with typical medical interventions and ultimately the last-resort option was needed to finally stop the bleeding and save Heather’s life (a complete hysterectomy). In total over the day, Heather lost over 5 liters of blood and was in active surgeries for over 7 hours to finally stabilize. During this time, she received a total of 33 units of blood via transfusion to keep her alive. She woke up the next day on life support in the ICU, dazed and swollen but generally aware of what transpired and grateful. We owe our family’s life to the dedicated OBGYN’s (both from Exceptional Care for Woman and the hospitalists at St Francis Medical Center) who worked together to care for Heather, and who could not have successfully intervened without the availability of so many units of donated blood and blood products. We hope to recruit 33 blood donations in honor of the 33 units of blood & blood products that Heather received.