Donating blood: ‘truly a pro-life act’

Kasey Holt held her newborn son Levi close in the moments after childbirth, husband Avery by her side, in a Saint Anthony Hospital room filled with joy.

Then things got tense.

Kasey was losing blood, lots of blood, and doctors and nurses struggled to identify the cause. The room, once peaceful, quickly turned to panic.

“I was kind of out of it, but I realized so many people surrounding me, someone shouting for more blood,” Kasey said. “The doctors were yelling at each other at one point.”

Soon, a transfusion was needed. Then surgery. And doctors raced to keep up with Kasey’s loss of blood.

“After several units of blood were administered, and then several more,” Avery said, “it was clear from the urgency in the voices of the doctors that something was very wrong.”

Doctors now believe that Kasey, during labor and delivery, acquired a rare, life-threatening bleeding disorder called Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, creating massive hemorrhaging for the young mother. TPP is found in only about 3.7 cases per million annually.

Ultimately, doctors were able to get Kasey’s bleeding under control, although it took twice the amount of her blood volume, days of platelet replacement procedures and 13 days in the hospital.

“It was very traumatic and something I grieve to this day,” Kasey said, “but I’ve done a lot of healing and I praise God that I get to be here, because I get to watch my son grow up. That was my prayer that night, as I had a moment of clarity during the panic before they put me under anesthesia for the surgery.”

She and Levi, who will turn 3 this fall, are fully healthy today. And Kasey and Avery are thankful, to blood donors everywhere, including many they know, and eager to share their story as the Oklahoma Blood Institute and the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City partner in a blood drive stretching to parishes across the area.

The drive is already underway and could carry into the fall.

“Giving blood is truly a pro-life act,” said Archbishop Paul Coakley.

According to OBI statistics, one unit of blood can save up to three lives. And every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood. The Hispanic community has a particularly high need, with the more rare Type O common in 60 percent of their population.

“Our Blood Institute is proud to partner with the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City in our lifesaving mission,” said Melissa Santoro.  “OBI is the community blood provider for the hospitals in Oklahoma.  Each donation at your parish will impact the lives of three patients in your local community. 

“Join us in this life-saving mission and be a hero today.”

OBI is offering some interesting incentives to parish blood donors, including prayer cards and a saint medal for Saint Januarius, the Patron Saint of Blood Donors.

“When we give blood, we are offering a part of our lives to save the life of someone else. Blood donation as a Catholic is a true pro-life practice,” Santoro said.

The Holts, who both work in the archdiocese, know it well. Through distress. And through recovery.

Parishes held emergency blood drives in their name, hoping to help replenish her O-positive blood type after she’d lost 30 units during the ordeal.

“Donating blood and other blood products is an act of tremendous love and an easy way to save another person’s life,” Avery said.

The morning after surgery, Avery and Kasey received simultaneous alerts on their phones which reported that “Oklahoma County desperately needed Type O blood.”

“It was kind of eerie, receiving that text and realizing I might have just sucked up the blood supply in our county,” Kasey said. “That’s why donating blood is a big passion of our family.”

Along with the gift of life, the Holts discovered a new benefit: an enhanced devotion to Blessed Stanley Rother, since Levi’s birth came on the anniversary of Blessed Stanley’s beatification, Sept. 23.

“I prayed a lot to Blessed Stanley to intercede for my wife and to keep our family together, so we both have an even deeper devotion to him now,” Avery said. “Archbishop came to visit us in the hospital, which was a big deal since there were still COVID restrictions in place, and let us have a relic of Blessed Stanley in our room until we were out of the hospital.

“I think it’s miraculous my wife survived. The surgeons said there were two times in surgery where they almost lost her. We give Blessed Stanley a lot of credit for the whole ordeal. It seemed a neat connection in a sense that he gave his blood for his people, and in turn people gave their blood for my wife. We felt like he interceded for us, even if we aren’t the reason he is declared a saint one day.”

John Helsley is the editor of the Sooner Catholic.


Photo (above): Kasey, Avery and Levi Holt at St. Anthony Hospital in Oklahoma City. Photo provided.