A disappointing realisation that she couldn’t donate blood to her own mother in hospital changed to elation the same day when Rachael Costa’s blood was used to help save a newborn baby’s life.
Costa, who has O negative blood type, is a regular blood donor, as her blood type is universal, and can be accepted by people of any blood type.
When her mother was in hospital for surgery Friday, and needed a blood transfusion, Costa went to her bedside in Health City in East End to offer hers.
But, when she got there, she learned that it is medically inadvisable to donate blood to a close relative because of potential rejection issues.
John Miller, of Health City’s blood bank, who knew Costa from the number of times she’d donated her blood at the hospital in emergencies over the years, met with her and her mother to explain that siblings and close relatives, like children and parents, cannot donate blood to one another because of what is known as graft-versus-host disease.
When she got the call from her mother, who asked if she would donate her blood, Costa said, “I was, like, ‘OK, on my way’. So I drove up to the hospital, fully prepared to donate blood, and said ‘I’m a universal donor. She can have my blood.’ And they said, ‘Actually, no, you can’t. … You can’t donate to each other, even if your blood is compatible.'”
During their conversation, Miller told Costa that he no longer had her phone number and asked if he could add it again to the list of hospital donors.
After leaving her number with Miller, she said, “I came back home, and two hours later, I’m getting ready to go out. We were going to go see a friend who was leaving the next day, and I’m dressed and about to walk out the door, when John Miller calls me, and goes, ‘Can you come and donate? … We just got a call, and there’s a newborn baby at Health City Camana Bay that needs blood. It has to be O neg and it has to be fresh drawn.”
So, Costa and her husband headed straight back to the East End hospital.
She says the coincidence of seeing Miller at the hospital earlier and then being able to help a baby the same day who urgently needed O negative blood seemed like “divine intervention”.
“You know, here’s my mom receiving somebody else’s blood to help her, and I’m getting called back to the very same place,” she said.
Long-time donor inspired by father
Costa says she has been donating blood for 30 years, inspired by her dad, the late Peter van der Bol.
“My dad was a long-time blood donor. He really instilled it in me … that you’ve got to register to vote and you’ve got to register to be a blood donor,” she said.
“I started donating when I was 18,” she added. “I’m a universal donor, O negative, which is often used for emergencies, as everyone can have it. And then, of course, also, if someone is O negative, they can’t receive any other type of blood.
“So I have gotten calls many times [to donate].”
At Health City, she has taken part in red blood cell donations, which differs from donating blood generally in that plasma and platelets from the blood are returned to the donor and only the red blood cells are kept.
In this case, she said, “They were very specific with this call, because they said they needed a fresh-drawn blood and the red blood cells.”
‘I felt so touched’
Costa recalls that as she and her husband were leaving the hospital, they saw the cooler containing her blood being readied to be transported to the hospital in Camana Bay. “I saw them put the cooler in the car and head out, and, oh, my heart. I felt so touched. It’s such a special feeling donating blood in general; you know, it’s always a good feeling. … but to know that it’s so urgent and needed so quickly, to be able to help somebody out like that, it’s just amazing.”
Miller told the Compass the baby, whom Costa says she would love to meet, is doing well.
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