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COVID-19 Survivor and Convalescent Plasma Recipient
OneBlood
October 13, 2020
OneBlood
October 13, 2020
Randy was given a 3% chance of survival after he was hospitalized with the coronavirus. He credits his remarkable recovery to a transfusion of COVID-19 Convalescent plasma.
"Within four days of receiving the plasma, I was off everything. Off dialysis. Off the ventilator," says Randy. "I'm a survivor."
"I'm standing here today a true believer that if it wasn't for everyone at OneBlood and helping one individual, me, get what I needed to survive, it's just overwhelming," says Randy.
Randy's daughter, Louisa is the one who urged doctors to try convalescent plasma and then teamed up with OneBlood.
Randy says, "With the help of everyone at OneBlood, we were able to find a donor and I truly believe OneBlood went out of their way to help my family and to help me survive. A tremendous organization."
Louisa also had coronavirus and seeing how convalescent plasma saved her father, she made the decision to become a convalescent plasma donor.
She says, "I saw firsthand how it can help patients and I wanted to essentially pay it forward and you know, give that gift to other families as well. It's honestly a very overwhelming feeling to know that my plasma has helped patients."
When Louisa makes her second convalescent plasma donation, she brings her dad along with her. To his surprise, he meets the team member who drew the plasma donation that helped save his life.
So, this is Tina. She was one of the lab technicians who drew your donor's plasma.
"How are you doing?"
"Can I hug you?" asks Randy.
"You can", says Tina.
"Oh, good."
"I am so glad you're home. We thought about you every day," says Tina.
Randy is simply overwhelmed with emotion, knowing the lengths his daughter and OneBlood went to in order to save his life.
"All of the OneBlood locations just teamed up. Nobody said no. Nobody said we can't. And if we can save a life, we're going to do it. Every time I see that Big Red Bus now, I guarantee you I'm going to stop and go in and say thank you to those people inside for stepping up and donating because it's so, so important," he says.
And now this father and daughter are on a mission to share a message they believe they are meant to deliver.
Lousia says, "I will continue to show up every 28 days, to continue donating, as long as I'm healthy and able to. I think the more people you can save the better."
Randy has a simple request. "I just encourage and ask everyone, if they have the antibodies, please donate and see how many people you can help."