|  A fall trip through the crisp autumn air. Traveling with your wife of 34 years to see your firstborn grandson. Sharing family, fun and football games while you cuddle the baby close to you. Robert Taylor, Executive Director of the northern region for LifeShare Blood Centers, and his wife Debbie were anticipating all that and more as they traveled to Alabama to visit their daughter, son-in law, two granddaughters and newborn grandson.
But a joyous trip almost turned tragic. On the third day of their long weekend trip, Robert felt ill. He passed out in his daughter’s home in Decatur. Once he regained consciousness, his wife and daughter rushed him to the emergency room of Decatur General Hospital.
Since Robert is a heart patient, he was admitted to a special area of the emergency room, where the nurse started evaluating his condition. From his symptoms, the nurse realized that he was hemorrhaging internally. The area that was bleeding had to be found and healed quickly. But Robert would need a blood transfusion immediately to replace all the blood that had already been lost. A cross match was quickly made, and the transfusion begun.
The doctor confirmed that Robert was hemorrhaging from an esophageal tear. The surgery that repaired the tear and the transfused blood components saved Robert’s life.
“ I am so thankful that blood donors in that area had given blood ahead of time so that it was available when my emergency occurred.” The Decatur hospital is served by an independent community blood center, LifeSouth Blood Center. Like LifeShare, LifeSouth is a member of America’s Blood Centers.
Robert has been working for LifeShare for seven years, but he says this experience has really brought home the importance of the work LifeShare does every day. “I have been asking people to donate blood for years, but I now realize that the life you are helping to save may be your own. This experience gives a whole new meaning to the phrase we often use, ‘Together, we share life.’”
Two days after Robert was released from the hospital, he was back in Shreveport, working at LifeShare. “I was still feeling a little weak, but there are so many patients who will also need blood transfusions. The holiday season is chronically a time of blood shortages. We have work to do.”
We are glad that Robert Taylor is back. And we are so thankful for those blood donors in Alabama, and for the blood donors here in LifeShare’s service territory and everywhere. Your blood donations DO make a difference. |
