Blood Transfusion Recipient

ERICA BARNES

 

For some reason, baby Erica wouldn't stop crying. She was born on May 24, 1996, and was discharged from Buffalo General Hospital three days later. But just five days after her birth, Erica's parents Angela and Eric Barnes rushed their baby to Children's Hospital in Buffalo, New York, because Erica turned black and blue. She had sustained a cardiopulmonary arrest.

That was the start of a four-month hospital stay.

"Our little girl had a pinched aorta," said Angela Barnes of Buffalo, who recruits blood donors by phone for the American Red Cross New York-Penn Blood Services Region. "The pinch near her shoulder cut off the blood supply to the rest of her body, including her brain, and her liver and kidneys stopped working."

Doctors performed emergency surgery to open the passageway and restore the flow of blood to Erica’s body. She needed three units of blood, which replaced half her blood supply.

After Erica was resuscitated, doctors found a large hole in the pumping chambers of her heart. Doctors performed open-heart surgery to repair the hole, and Erica received another six units of blood.

Four months and two additional surgeries later, Erica went home. She now receives physical and speech therapy to treat developmental delays caused by her early challenges. And a shunt drains fluid from Erica's brain to her stomach due to hydrocephalus (water on the brain).

"We are so grateful the blood was there for Erica," Angela said. "She’s a little miracle child. She wouldn’t have made it through without the help of God, the support of blood donors and the doctors who treated her."

As a blood donor recruiter for the American Red Cross, Angela seizes the opportunity daily to give back to the community blood supply. "Every day when I come to work, my job is to ask people I don’t know to give blood. Sometimes they tell me they don’t have time. Sometimes they tell me they’re just not interested," Angela said.

"I’d like to tell them that we never know what the future will hold. It could be you who needs blood. You just don’t know. Miracles happen every day because of blood donors and blood drive sponsors. My family and I truly thank blood donors for making one happen for us."