Why Blood Matters – A Blood Recipient Story

“No one ever plans to need blood.”

Pregnancy doesn’t always go as expected. In a worst-case scenario, some women experience what’s known as an ectopic pregnancy, a rare complication that can cause severe bleeding and death within the blink of an eye.

Meet Elise, a patient who suffered life-threatening internal bleeding during an ectopic pregnancy.

Elise 

Ectopic Pregnancy Survivor 

During her brother’s wedding, Elise suddenly collapsed and was rushed by her partner to the operating room, where an abdominal ultrasound revealed her fallopian tube had ruptured. Amid frenzied activity in the ER, Elise first received Type O-negative blood, prior to blood typing results. She remembers telling the nurses, “I’m A+! I’m A+!”  

To save her life, doctors needed nine units of red blood cells and three units of plasma, which almost replaced Elise’s entire blood volume.

Reflecting back, Elise stated, “Because I was at a small hospital with a limited stock of blood, I was told, ‘You’re lucky there wasn’t a car accident, because we might not have had enough blood on hand for this emergency.’” 

Here is her message to blood donors: “No one ever plans to need blood. No one plans for a car accident or an ectopic pregnancy, but it happens. You just never know if you or someone you care about will have a medical trauma that requires blood. I am so grateful for those that give - thank you.