On January 15th, my wife Serena gave birth to our incredible daughter Vivian via emergency C-section. After 30+ hours of labour and an extremely hectic surgery, our daughter was finally here, and we thought the worst was behind us. Unfortunately, as soon as Serena and Vivian were returned to the recovery area, the code was called and we were immediately swarmed with doctors and nurses from all directions as Serena began losing blood fast.
Through all this chaos we watched the doctors squeeze bag after bag of blood into Serena to keep her alive. The decision was finally made that she needed to be rushed down for immediate exploratory surgery and we were told that this was a life or death situation if they were not able to locate the bleed fast. Hearing those words, and having to watch the person you care most about in this world be rolled away not knowing if you will ever see them again, is something I would not wish on anyone.
It was in this moment that Serena did what makes her so special: looked back at us, somehow laughed, and said “Pfft, I got this!”
More than three hours of surgery, later the surgeons were able to locate the bleed and stabilize Serena. In the end, Serena lost the equivalent of her entire body’s quantity of blood twice, and it took over 18 litres of blood from over 31 different blood donors to save her life. We will unfortunately never have the opportunity to thank those 31 generous people that we owe Serena’s life to, but knew that we would do everything we could to help save others in the same way.
We are organizing an annual blood donation drive and have called it Serena’s Village in recognition of the 31 people who gave selflessly and saved her life. We are asking our friends and family to join us in our efforts!! Our goal is to donate at least 31 units of blood. One unit for each of the people who donated and saved Serena. We appreciate all who are able to help us in this goal to give back and save lives.
