Posted on
02 July 2010, under
Health; More Health articles...
Give Blood, Give Life...
In April 2009 we discovered that my wife Susan was pregnant, we had three boys already, all had been fairly routine pregnancies and, as this was number 4 we were relaxed and looking forward to another arrival in November.
The first hint that this would be a different experience was at Susan’s 20 week scan. The sonographer noted that Susan’s placenta was low lying and told us that she probably had placenta previa and queried a condition called Acretta, neither of which I had ever heard of! Susan’s obstetrician’s approach changed immediately and we were told that this would be a far more managed pregnancy with potential for significant complications.
Boy was she right! Susan was admitted to hospital at 29 weeks, with a plan to get her to 34 weeks before delivery. The baby however had different plans! On 9/09/09, Susan had a huge bleed and Sarah was born, 9 weeks premature, at just 31 weeks gestation. The baby was born by C-section under General Anaesthetic within 30 minutes of the bleed. Both Susan and Sarah were gravely ill afterwards.
On Thursday morning the 10th of September, Susan was fighting for her life in Intensive Care in one hospital and Sarah fighting for her own tiny life in SCBU in another. Susan had had a massive post partum haemorrhage and very nearly died, she received 36 units of blood and platelets in the 10 hours after Sarah’s birth. I have no doubt that it was the availability of this blood that allowed fantastic doctors and nurses save her life.
10 months later both Susan and Sarah are doing great, it been a crazy time and we are slowly getting back to normal, what ever normal with four under 9 is!! We feel enormous gratitude to the medical profession and the Irish Blood Transfusion Service and are very much aware of just how lucky we were.
I have learnt a lot about blood since September, the average adult has about 10 units; a blood donation has a shelf life of about 35 days, platelets only 5 – 7 days. Only 3% of the Irish population give blood.
In the four weeks before my daughter’s birth, 36 A Negative people gave up an hour of their lives to donate blood or platelets, those people gave brilliant medical staff what they needed to keep my wife alive, it’s that simple!
I would urge any dads or dads-to-be to think about the day you bring a new baby home from hospital, blood donors meant that I could bring mum home as well.
Colin McNamee
For further information or to find your nearest blood donor clinic log on to www.giveblood.ie or call Locall 1850 731 137
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