Blood drive is coming! MARCH 25 – 12:00 TO 6:00
Engage friends and family:
Invite friends, family members, and neighbors. Blood donation at your drive can
be an easy, meaningful service opportunity for high school and college students
out on break. Involve young adult volunteers who can help recruit new donors.
Meanwhile, here's a great story to illustrate just how important YOUR donation is:
HANNAH MAE’S New Heart
On May 18, 2012, Jon and Jennifer Campbell celebrated the birth of their first daughter, Hannah Mae. Their joy turned to worry with the discovery that Hannah’s heart was enlarged and beating too fast. She was transferred to Children’s Hospital in Seattle where her heart seemed to stabilize. Her doctors were feeling positive that she would outgrow her heart problems. The Campbell family felt hopeful as they brought Hannah home from the hospital. However, fear and uncertainty soon took over after a routine cardiology appointment sent her straight back to Children’s for more tests and intensive care. The summer was a roller coaster of bad news, blood transfusions, surgeries, xtensive tests, and hope for a fix. Tests showed she had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy— a combination of heart conditions that no other patient had ever survived before.
Before she was even two months old, Hannah Mae received a pacemaker and subsequently went into cardiac arrest. Placed on life support, Hannah’s parents prayed for a miracle as she was listed for a heart transplant at three months old. A new heart was the only thing that could save Hannah, and her parents struggled with the thought of the grief her heart donor’s family would face.
While she waited for her new heart, Hannah Mae shared many smiles and showed incredible strength and determination. On Sep. 24, she received her new heart thanks to a generous family who chose to donate their child’s organs in the midst of their tragedy. Jon and Jennifer will be forever grateful to Hannah’s donor and family.
Before Hannah’s transplant surgery, Jennifer and family friends put together a blood drive to help others who also need blood.
Nearly 200 donors gave blood in Hannah’s honor last August. They continue to host blood drives at Central Market in Mill Creek every two months in support of Hannah Mae. Hannah is only the fourth ever documented case in the world and the only known survivor. After her heart transplant, the roller coaster ride continued as doctors made changes from one diagnosis to another. She remained in Children’s Hospital while she adjusted to new medications and Jen learned how to care for Hannah at home.
Despite readmission to the ICU with pneumonia in December and an ongoing fight with a mild rejection of her new heart, Hannah remains happy and vivacious. The rejection is treatable with medication and she is doing very well as she nears her first birthday. In Jen’s words, “Hannah Mae needs absolutely nothing for her birthday so what a better way to celebrate a first birthday than to celebrate with a blood drive? It seems to me that first birthdays are more for the parents anyway, so in our case why not save some lives? With Hannah in the hospital for 169 days we have set a target goal of 169 donors. If Hannah did not have people take the time to donate she would not have made it to her first birthday. To date, my daughter has had 59 blood transfusions. I am so grateful for those donors and would love to give back.”