Blood Transfusion Recipient

PHYLLIS RICHARDS

 

Rebecca Davis of Franklin, Pennsylvania, donates blood regularly with her sister in mind. "I realize the importance of donating blood from past experience, like with Phyllis," Rebecca said. "I’m not a really involved person, so it’s one way I can help others."

Phyllis Richards’s 1999 family vacation turned into a panic. While out of town on the way to an amusement park with her family, her blood’s hemoglobin level fell to half of where it should be.

"I turned to my husband and said, ‘I don’t feel good this morning,’" Phyllis said just before losing consciousness. Phyllis, who has had pernitious anemia throughout her adult years, experienced seizures and perspired until her clothes were soaked through. An emergency room doctor instructed Phyllis’s husband to take her home to Inman, South Carolina, to see a doctor immediately.

Back home, Phyllis’s doctor exclaimed, "My lord, woman, what’s happened to you?" Her skin was a greenish hue. "Two hours later, I was in the hospital and received three blood transfusions, one right after the other," she said.

In fact, Phyllis has required blood at least seven times in her life because of her condition, pernicious anemia. It’s caused by a body’s inability to absorb B-12 from food.

Phyllis, grateful for her family’s commitment to the blood supply, said, "I was only able to donate blood once in my life. And I’ve always wanted to be able to give more than that."

Once, when Phyllis’s daughter and a friend set out to give blood but returned home having put it off until another time. "I got a little angry with them and said, ‘Don’t you remember what happened to me just a year and a half ago?’" Richards said. "It’s an important thing, to give blood. It’s pretty close to home for us."