Donating Blood To Give Back

Yesterday for the first time I donated blood. I have been wanting to do so for a while as it was the donations of blood that saved my little girls life. She was 2 at the time, it was meant to be a normal day, eldest at school, her and I off to the gym. She was lethargic and teary so I left her at Mum’s and went to the gym alone. I was only gone for an hour and in that time she had developed a red rash over her belly, was very hot and as I sat on the phone ringing to make a Doctor appointment she started to vomit on me! They advised me to take her straight to hospital. At the time I was 11 weeks pregnant with my third, in a hurry to leave I left my bag with my purse and phone at my Mums.

At the hospital they took us straight in, I could see the worry in the Doctors, as she lay on the bed getting hotter and fading away fast. After an hour we were in to an Ambulance being transferred to a bigger hospital. Then the panic set in, I had no money, no phone and somehow I had to pick my son up from school that afternoon, and I was still in my sweaty gym gear covered in vomit. My husband was of course away with work, in Darwin I think, so I asked my Mum to do the school run and off we went in the Ambulance.

At the next hospital, we were seen by a gaggle of Paediatricians, all had Meningococcal written all over their faces. We were put in a room with the door shut, when a nurse would come in she would be wearing a full body apron, hat and gloves as my daughter was being treated as if she had an infectious disease. There I was 11 weeks pregnant, I asked every Doctor if I shouldn’t be in there and none would give me a straight answer. I found myself asking do I stay with my daughter who needs me, or do I get someone else to stay with her and protect the unprotected baby in my belly. I couldn’t leave my seriously sick 2 year old, so I stayed and slept in the bed holding her sick, hot little body and continued to be puked on.

As she got sicker, the rash covered her entire body, her eyes became so blood shot that she had no white around her irises just red blood eyes like a monster, her lips and tongue were swollen and bright red. She was on a drip, and slept for three days, still no Doctor could figure out what she had. We took no photos as we didn’t know how this would end. Then the tenth Doctor to come through finally made the diagnosis of Kawasaki Disease, what the hell is that?

It is a rare condition that is often found in Asia, long story short it causes the inflammation in the blood vessels particularly in the coronary arteries which provides blood to the heart. The treatment was with intravenous doses of gamma globulin (purified antibodies), an ingredient of blood that helps the body fight infection, which one bag is made up of donations from 1000 people in the chance that someone had the antibodies for Kawasaki. This nasty Kawasaki Disease is the leading cause of heart disease in children under 5 if it is not treated by the tenth day, we were so lucky that Doctor had a hunch on day four. After she received the gamma globulin, you could see her getting better within 12 hours.

We were in the hospital for a total of seven days, she was given high doses of aspirin to reduce the risk of heart problems, chest Xrays and Echocardiograms, lots of blood tests, and blood products and she was only 2. Thankfully she pulled through and with months of aspirin and Echocardiograms she was given the all clear. There is only one thing scarier than having a sick child, that’s being pregnant at the time. I am so grateful that the two of them were left unharmed, a very scary time in my life.

I encourage everyone eligible to donate blood because you are actually saving lives, how often can you say that? To think the blood product my daughter was given was made up from 1000 peoples donations means I have a lot of blood to give back. Thank you to anyone who has ever donated and if you haven’t you really should.

Here is a link to the Kawasaki Disease Foundation in case you are curious or are ever touched by it. Here is the link to the Red Cross for info on donating your blood.

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