The Red Cross is experiencing a historic blood donation crisis. Blood donations are at their lowest in over a decade. Donations are crucial in helping people make swift recoveries in the hospital from various illnesses and surgeries. For patients like Charley Chance, an infant battling leukemia, having blood donations available is truly the key to her survival.
Charley has been battling leukemia since her diagnosis in August 2021 when she was 6 months old. Sarah Chance, Charley’s mother, noticed that around the same time Charley started daycare, she was constantly sick. Charley’s doctors assured Sarah that it was just a virus and would go away as Charley got acclimated to the daycare environment. However, her symptoms continued. After some more tests, she was eventually diagnosed with leukemia.
Ever since her diagnosis, Charley has been in and out of the hospital frequently for chemotherapy treatments and receiving several blood transfusions. She had been doing well until recently she started vomiting blood for four days in a row. Charley’s doctors recommended Charley have platelet transfusion, but the blood supply at the hospital was very scarce. “They said that there were only 9 bags left between the adult and children’s hospitals,” Sarah recalled. “They had to prioritize those that were actively bleeding, so Charley would have to wait to get a transfusion.”