Blood donation does not cost anything but its absence can cost lives, a young mother, whose son was saved by donors from possible heart failure, has stressed.
As a working mother of two boys, life was busy for Jade* who stretched her energy to fit in as much quality time with her sons as possible, because nothing was more precious than seeing them grow up.
When she thought life could not get busier, her eldest son, aged four, fell ill with a slight fever and funny cough. When the symptoms persisted for three days, his paediatrician suggested taking him to hospital to ensure there was no lung infection.
“By this time, my son, who usually somersaults his way around, was so weak he was unable to walk,” she recounts.
A couple of blood tests and six hours later, the doctors broke the news he needed a very urgent blood transfusion because he had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
“My whole world shattered as I looked at my son lying in that hospital bed, wired up to oxygen pumps and every other equipment imaginable,” she says.
Doctors rushed in to monitor him, while others started preparing her for what was about to hit her family.
“My emotions instantly left me and I became totally numb. Everything that was so important a second earlier didn’t even make it in my to-do list anymore. I just walked into this huge cloud. I stood still as the world around me moved on,” she recalls.
As she stood overwhelmed with endless questions, she was brought back to her senses when the doctors hooked up her son for a blood transfusion.
“I was told that if he didn’t have this blood transfusion, he would suffer a fatal heart failure within a span of 12 hours, because his blood levels were dangerously low. I couldn’t have been more in disbelief that I was so close to losing my loving, mischievous son on my home sofa.
“I had never appreciated blood donors so much before then. If it weren’t for them, my son would not have stood a chance.”
Jade prefers to remain anonymous, as she believes that it is up to her son to decide whether to go public when he comes of age. But her message is still clear: “No patient can survive cancer without a sufficient blood supply. It doesn’t cost anything to donate blood, but its absence will definitely cost lives.”
In the following 30 months, as her son underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a transplant, he required an average of one blood bag every two days. “One particular moment that struck me was when I was told there was no blood supply that matched my son’s blood type and that he couldn’t wait for longer than a day without having serious side effects.
“I was petrified and I desperately tried asking to donate blood myself since I shared his blood type,” she says, recalling how the nurse in charge of donor liaison, Tony Micallef, explained she could not donate.
Thanks to on-call donors, within hours her son could carry on with his journey.
Jade can now say her son survived cancer and life carried on, however this would not have been possible without pediatrician Victor Calvagna, the Rainbow Ward nurses, her family’s support and “the huge input of all those generous blood donors”.
Before the ordeal, she was under the impression that blood transfusions were mostly required by those in life-threatening accidents.
“It is now obvious that while these people require blood urgently, it is only for a short period of time. Cancer treatment takes years and suppresses one’s blood cells. As a result, blood levels are constantly low and in need of frequent topping up, be it red blood cells or platelets.”
For updated information about blood donation, look up National Blood Transfusion Service – Malta on Facebook.
*Not her real name