Our Student Health team got to save a life today… by giving blood together. How’s that for team building? 🙂 We got a call from the hospital saying they needed blood for a patient who had just delivered a baby and was still actively bleeding out after already receiving 4 units of blood. They needed 4 blood donors. We are quite used to getting phone calls like this and going down our list calling our RVA staff who have the matching blood type. However, this time we had trouble getting in touch with anyone who was available to donate… but Chip, Joe and I all had the blood type that was needed. So, it ended up being the three of us who went while Amanda (not the blood type needed) held down the fort.

I was super nervous! I have never given blood before, mostly because it’s rare that they call for my blood type and there are usually lots of other volunteers. When we got there, one of the OBs I work with came to tell us that the new mother was barely hanging on in the OR after having an emergency hysterectomy and having lost so much blood. She wasn’t even sure the woman would survive (BP 50/20). After returning back to Student Health, I called to see how the patient was doing… and she was alive and stable in ICU! Woohoo! It’s such a unique opportunity we have here in Kijabe to know the situation/patient to whom we are donating blood. How rewarding to go to sleep tonight knowing there is a new baby in this world with a mommy who will be alive to raise her!

Never a dull moment around here. 🙂