The annual Telegram Saves Lives campaign runs until Oct. 21. As part of our efforts to encourage people to give blood, we’re running a series of letters from people whose lives were changed by blood donation. Nancy Jackson of South Dildo submitted this one.
When you give blood, you give another birthday, another anniversary, another day at the beach, another night under the stands, another talk to a friend, another laugh, another hug and another chance.
On July 16, 2010, our son Taylor got just that. My family’s life got turned upside down that day.
It started like any other summer day. Taylor left on his bike to go play ball as I got ready to take our daughters and their friends into St. John’s to spend a day at the park. When I arrived at the park, Taylor called to say he had fallen off his bike and bumped his head on a rock. My first question was, “Were you wearing your helmet?” Taylor always wore his helmet, but that morning he was in a rush and left without it.
Taylor then rode his bike home and called again. He said, “Mom, my brain is bleeding.” I told him his brain could not have been bleeding. How would he even know that, I thought. Other than road rash on his knee, Taylor had had no other cuts or bleeding.
He then went over to his aunt’s house, which is close by. Taylor started to become tired. His aunt dropped him to his grandparents and, by this time, his condition was deteriorating rapidly.
They brought Taylor to the Newhook Clinic in Whitbourne. An angel of a doctor, Dr. Patey, who was on call that day, quickly saw Taylor. He was a retired doctor who took one look at Taylor and knew just how serious his condition was.
By this time, I was on my way out over the highway and heading home. I got a call to tell me Taylor was being brought into the Janeway to get checked out. I turned around and met the ambulance there. Before Dr. Patey left the clinic, he took the maintenance man’s drill with him. He had to performance an emergency burr hole on the way to the Janeway. Taylor’s brain was bleeding and this released the pressure on his brain, but it caused Taylor to lose a lot of blood.
I’ll never forgot what I saw when they opened the ambulance door. There was blood everywhere. He was rushed into emergency brain surgery where they repaired the bleed. Taylor was given six units of blood that day. This would not have been possible without blood donors.
Taylor was in the Janeway for 35 days. He spent two weeks in the ICU. The first week Taylor was heavily sedated for his brain to heal. He had a lot of setbacks at first, from a collapsed lung to a blood clot in his leg, but he kept fighting.
During those 35 days, Taylor had to learn how to walk, talk and eat again. It took a lot of physiotherapy and occupational therapy, but he kept going forward.
This really changed my perspective on blood donation and life in general. I had never taken the time to give blood or realized the importance of doing so. Blood is not something that is manufactured in a plant. It’s something that must be given by people in our community. How can something as important as blood be taken for granted?
I have been a blood donor ever since. Our youngest daughter Maddison, who was only 10 at the time of Taylor’s accident, became a blood donor on her 17th birthday. She has given blood twice so far.
As for Taylor, he graduated high school with all of his friends and went on to post-secondary. He completed the deck hand course at the Marine Institute and has been working ever since.
He is now engaged and living in Marystown with his financé Miranda and her son Carter, who Taylor considers his own. They are expecting a child in November. Without blood donors, Taylor would never have been given any of these chances.
Giving blood is one of the most satisfying, unselfish feelings in the world. How great it is to know that you may be saving someone’s life. There is no substitute for blood. Generous donors in our community must give it.
Just remember when you hear or drive by a blood donor clinic that you are someone’s type and could be the reason someone is still living. Find the hero in you and donate today. I’m glad I did.
The Canadian Blood Services location at 7 Wicklow St., St. John’s, is open from Tuesday to Saturday. Visit blood.ca for times.
