Following the Holiday, there is an Urgent Need for Platelet Donations. Please Donate Now!
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
My pregnancy was lovely. Despite all the physical and emotional roller coasters that come along with growing a human inside your body, I really did enjoy every part of the journey.
Labor and delivery were a different story. My water broke in the middle of the night, at 39 weeks of gestation, and thus began a 40-hour process of bringing my son into the world. I had developed severe preeclampsia and labor had to be stalled several times to keep my blood pressure down and my son and I safe.
He was finally delivered, healthy and strong and beautiful. I struggled, however, to deliver the placenta.
After 45 minutes of trying, I was rushed to the operating room, leaving my husband and son to wait and worry. I had begun to hemorrhage, and it was discovered that I was suffering from placenta accreta, a condition in which the placenta grows into the uterine wall. In the operating room, my blood loss continued, requiring several transfusions. I lost a total of 40% of my blood volume.
Doctors were able to stop the hemorrhaging and save my uterus, but I would never be able to carry a pregnancy again. In the week at the hospital that followed, I received yet another transfusion, as my blood levels failed to stabilize.
I am very grateful for the blood of strangers, which helped me to survive the hemorrhaging that threatened my life. Every year on my son’s birthday, I donate in his honor and to help a stranger who is in need