They gave him quite a long time to speak, so it is a little lengthy.
I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to share
about my family and how we have been personally impacted by Lifeblood. I donated blood for the first time in
2006. A lot has happened in the last 6
years. But I never would have imagined
having the opportunity I have today.
I think the goal of me being here is to encourage you and
help you put a face behind all the work you do.
Well, here is a face for you to remember. This is my son, Jonah. In June he was the recipient of blood
products that probably passed through many of your hands. So if you want to put a face behind all those
pints you are collecting, here you go. He’s
5 years old, he weighs 38 pounds, he can beat me at Mario Cart, and I think you
will agree with me – he’s a real trooper.
I want to briefly share how I started out donating
blood. I started donating blood in 2006
at work. It was during the Elvis t-shirt
promotion. One of my friends was in
charge of the blood drive on our floor so I asked her what the donation process
was like. I was a little nervous but
decided to go ahead and do it. After
that first time I thought to myself, “I will probably never do this
again.” It was pretty uncomfortable. But then I heard a statistic that 60% of
first time donors never donate a second time – and I didn’t want to be part of
that statistic. So I convinced myself to
donate a second time. It wasn’t that
bad. So then I started setting personal
goals. I wanted to donate up to a gallon. Then 2 gallons. Currently I have donated almost 4 gallons and
now I just try to donate as soon as I am eligible. Along the way I ended up being the
representative for International Paper’s blood drive at the Towers.
Because of my involvement with the blood drives at work I
have talked to a lot of life-long donors.
It didn’t take long to discover a lot of people have a reason for
donating. They had either a family
member or close friend who needed blood and that now drives them to donate year
round. So I had a funny feeling that I
didn’t just randomly get into blood donation.
I knew I would eventually have a story like most of the donors I’ve
met. I just didn’t know it would happen
so soon.
In 2007 Katie and I felt that the Lord was telling us we
should adopt a child. Specifically, a
child from China. Before we officially
declared with the China program our agency called and said they had a boy in
Hong Kong they wanted us to look at. He
was 3 years old. From day one our agency
shared with us that he had a complex heart condition. On the same day they emailed us a mug-shot
picture. His chubby cheeks and almond
shaped eyes took root in our hearts and we loved him immediately. We knew his heart condition was pretty
serious, but our logic was if God wanted us to have this child, He would give
us what we need to take care of him. And
He has been completely faithful to do that.
We eventually started getting medical documents from Hong
Kong as we prepared to bring him home.
We met with a cardiologist at Le Bonheur to discuss his condition. As our cardiologist was looking through all
the paperwork her eyes kept getting bigger and bigger. We were like, “Is everything OK?” She couldn’t believe he was still alive. His heart was very special. In his first year of life he had multiple
open heart surgeries. She prepared us
for the fact that when we brought Jonah home he would need another major
surgery pretty soon after he arrived.
After a lot of waiting and an unbelievable amount of
paperwork, in February of this year we went to Hong Kong and got our son. We spent a week there meeting the wonderful
people who had taken care of him since he left the hospital. It was amazing to see how dearly loved he
was. The orphanage was not at all what
you typically think of when you hear of orphanages in China and other places
overseas. It was very personal. There were a ton of volunteers. And they genuinely loved the children under
their care. But, considering all this,
how great the facility was, and how well taken care of Jonah was – it would not
compare to having his own family, his own mommy and daddy. So we brought Jonah home and started our new
family.
When we landed in Los Angeles and went through customs, it
was such a huge moment. We missed our
son’s very first steps. But we had a
front row seat for his first steps in the United States. He was so excited to be in America. Every minute was a new experience for
him.
The first few weeks were filled with joys and
challenges. The process of getting to
know Jonah and introducing him to new things was so much fun. I think we went to get ice cream every day
for a solid three months. It was such a
unique time for the 3 of us and we will have those memories forever.
As things settled down we started making plans to have surgery
in the summer. The surgery Jonah needed
is called a Fontan. A major symptom of
his condition is that he was not getting enough oxygen in his blood. The normal oxygen level for you and me is
around 99% and his was 80%. So his
little fingers and toes would often turn blue and he would get out of breath
faster than the average kid his age. So
the goal of the surgery was to redirect blood flow to his lungs and get more
oxygen in his blood.
On June 18 we checked into Le Bonheur. For this surgery the surgeon likes for the
child to be in the hospital 24 hours before the surgery for monitoring and
blood work. Jonah had a blast in the
hospital that first night. I guess for
him it was like going on a trip and staying in a hotel. He played with the bed for most of the
night. There were so many buttons to
push.
We tried our best to prepare him for what was about to
happen. We also tried to prepare each
other.
The surgery was over in about 5 hours. The surgeon was very happy with how it turned
out. Jonah did well and should have a normal
recovery. We were relieved.
It took an hour for them to get his room ready in the
ICU. We were relieved that everything
was successful, but still anticipating what we would see going into the room
after surgery. It was a lot to take
in. There were so many tubes and
monitors - so many IVs in his little body.
After a few days some of the tubes were able to come
out. We got Jonah out of the bed and
rode around the floor in a wagon. He
could say a few words but his voice was so faint. It was painful to see him like this. He was heavily drugged. If he wasn’t sleeping or crying he had a
blank stare and there was no spark in his eyes.
It seemed like progress was either non-existent or very slow.
We expected to be in the hospital for about 10 days. After day 7 our cardiologist ordered an
echocardiogram. It was a test that would
need to be done before we left the hospital but based on how lethargic Jonah
had been she wanted to go ahead and get it done.
After talking with the doctor we knew we would be there for
at least another week. So right after
the echo I left the hospital for the first time since we checked in just to go
get a few things from home. On my way
home Katie called me and said to hurry up because there was a problem. The echo showed a blood clot in Jonah’s heart
near the Fontan and the doctors were going to discuss what to do about it later
that night. It was around 2 in the
afternoon. So I rushed home. When I got home Katie called again and said
they were taking Jonah into the cath lab right then and I needed to get there
now. So I rushed back to LeBonheur and
made it there just in time to kiss his forehead and hear the doctor tell us all
the risks involved.
The risks were high. There
were no great options. But they all
agreed they should go in and attempt to break up the clot. I had a horrible feeling in my stomach. We had prepared for the surgery, but not for
any complications. It was very
scary.
The goal was to break up the clot through a catheter using
an angiojet, and then drip a drug named TPA through the catheter overnight to
dissolve whatever was left.
After the procedure the doctor explained they had busted up
40% of the clot and they were hoping the TPA would take care of the rest of it
that night.
Around midnight things had settled down so Katie and I went
to the cafeteria and ate a couple of cheeseburgers. The last few hours had been really intense
and we were hungry. After that we went
back to the room and the nurse was explaining all the new tubes and IVs and
told us they would take really good care of Jonah that night. So we went to bed.
Every night we slept to the sound of Jonah’s heartbeat. Actually there were a lot of sounds – and we
just got used to it. Alarms would go off
– we would sit up and ask the nurse if everything was alright – then lay back
down and try to sleep.
It was the middle of the night. The monitor was beating faster than
normal. We knew what normal was at this
point and this was not normal.
Throughout the night Jonah’s heartbeat got faster and faster. Something was not right.
Over the next few hours Jonah would develop a huge hematoma
in his thigh. 60% of his blood went to
his thigh. His leg got so big I could
only look at it a few seconds at a time.
We didn’t know how serious it was.
Was he going to lose his leg?
Some of the nurses were crying.
Katie was crying. Our cath doctor
was called in early and immediately started putting pressure on his leg. It was frantic. People were moving quickly. Our cardiologist got there and tried to calm
us down. For a few hours the scene was
very intense.
Eventually the bleeding stopped. He spent the next 2 days on the ventilator
just to let everything calm down. After
the breathing tube came out progress was slow but steady. Eventually life started coming back into my
son’s eyes and we were able to leave the hospital. We were there for 3 weeks.
Let me take this opportunity to say how thankful we are for
the facilities and staff at Le Bonheur.
They went out of their way to keep us informed and comfortable during
our stay there. And the way they cared
for Jonah was heart-warming.
Looking back on it now – it’s hard to believe. He has made a full recovery. He recently celebrated his 5th
birthday. He started home school about a
month ago. He loves math. He loves Mario and Louigi. He loves cheeseburgers. And thanks to one of our friends he now loves
Chuck E Cheese.
We are so thankful for his progress over the last few months. He’s an amazing child and his future looks
positive. But I think we all know the
story had potential to be very different.
I never heard how many units or how many blood products
Jonah needed while we were there, but I know I saw a lot of red bags and FFPs
during those 3 weeks. It was amazing to
see Jonah’s body respond as the doctors would give him blood. He obviously needed blood after the clot in
his leg. And then at other times they
would use blood to regulate certain vital signs. They used blood products the same way they
used other medications. If they didn’t
like something the monitor was showing they would order more blood.
So I really started to understand that there is life in
those bags. People really depend on the blood
supply. We didn’t have to postpone the
surgery because the blood supply was low.
We didn’t have to deal with a tragic situation when Jonah lost 60% of
his blood. The blood was available. It was right down the hall. There was no waiting.
Actually, I can’t imagine what it would have been like if
the blood were not available. Children
with Jonah’s condition are only eligible for this surgery for a short time
period. In other words, the older you
get, the more resistant your body is to this procedure. The window of time is very narrow. In fact, if Jonah were born in the United
States our cardiologist would have done this surgery a few years ago. So how awful would it have been if he made it
this far, survived multiple open heart surgeries in Hong Kong, came to America
and then had to wait for the blood supply to be replenished before he could
have the surgery.
What if that morning when life was bleeding out of my son,
the doctors said I’m sorry, there is
nothing we can do. We’re out of blood.
Thanks to the efforts of everyone in this room, we don’t
have to ask those questions today. Thanks
to you, when I get home from work, as long as Little Einstein’s or Diego is not
on, I am greeted with hugs and smiles from my little boy.
I know many of you start your day very early in the morning
– especially you who work the mobile drives.
But when you have a hard time waking up, and it’s just too early in the
morning – remember because of what you are doing I am able to kiss my boy
before I leave for work. Do you realize
that?
You are impacting real lives in our community. The work you do collecting and recruiting may
seem like it’s just another job – but you are saving lives every day.
At my job at International Paper things get stressful. But every once in a while I have to remind
myself it’s just paper. No one is going
to die if they don’t get their paper!
But when you go to work you must remember people’s lives are
depending on you. You may not get the
same publicity and recognition – but Lifeblood has the same “hero status” as
police officers and firemen. Phlebotomy
may not sound as glamorous as pulling a child from a burning building. And going to North Eastern Arkansas for a
mobile drive may not sound as exciting as chasing down armed bank robbers. But believe me when I say you are all
heroes.
Without Lifeblood our community would suffer.
So I want to thank you again for letting me share my
family’s story. But mainly I want to
thank you for what you are doing to sustain the blood supply in our
community.
You know, I think for most people the blood supply is like
electricity. You don’t even think about
it until it’s gone and you need it.
Think about how dysfunctional we are when the power goes out! We go around the house looking for candles
and sometimes will try to turn the lights on so we can find the candles but
then we forget that’s why we need the candles because the power’s out. The air is out. It starts getting hot. There’s no TV. We feel like life is on pause until
everything comes back on.
But in all seriousness, when the blood supply goes out, life
IS on pause. Life does stop. When faced with an accident or emergency
surgery, you can’t wait it out. You
can’t just wait for the power to come back on.
The Mid-South is very fortunate to have Lifeblood keeping
the power on for our blood supply. Your
efforts are making life better for so many people. Thank you for what you are doing, and thank
you for your commitment to our community.
