On the day Jack was born, massive blood transfusion was one of the medical interventions that saved Heather’s life.

What started as a normally progressing scheduled induction that moved along perfectly ended up as a very near nightmare. After pushing for several hours with little movement, Jack showed signs of stress and was struggling to recover between pushes. An emergency c-section was required for Jack’s health and safety. During/after the c-section, it became clear that Heather was experiencing uterine atony (a complication where the uterus fails to effectively contract). Heather experienced severe hemorrhaging and received a mass blood transfusion. She was temporarily stabilized and sent to recovery, only to decompensate within 30 minutes and be rushed back into a second emergency surgery where she received additional mass blood transfusions. Ultimately, the hemorrhaging failed to stabilize with typical medical interventions and the last-resort option was needed to finally stop the bleeding and save Heather’s life (a complete hysterectomy).

In total over the day, Heather lost over 5 liters of blood and was in active surgeries for over 7 hours to stabilize. During this time, she received a total of 33 units of blood via transfusion to keep her alive. She woke up the next day on life support in the ICU, dazed and swollen but mostly aware of what transpired and grateful.

We owe our family’s life to the dedicated OBGYN’s (both from Exceptional Care for Woman and the hospitalists at St Francis Medical Center) who worked together to care for Heather, and who could not have successfully intervened without the availability of so many units of donated blood and blood products.

As we celebrate the first annual Morris JAMboree (celebrating Jack, baby JAM’s, first birthday and Jonathan, big JAM’s, 37th), we hope to recruit 33 blood donations in honor of the 33 units of blood & blood products that Heather received.

To join us, make your pledge by clicking the red button above. You can schedule to donate anywhere you’d like – Red Cross will direct you to drives managed by Red Cross after pledging, but if Red Cross appointments are limited in your area you can also donate through any other blood donation organization, such as Vitalant (https://www.vitalant.org) or Versiti (https://versiti.org). A great place to look for locations or centers near you is here: https://www.aabb.org/for-donors-patients/give-blood

Regardless of where you donate, when you go for your appointment snap a selfie and send it to us!