Texas Gulf Coast Swim Mom Needs Blood Donations

Anyone with A- blood wishing to donate blood on her behalf can do so at St. Luke’s Medical Center in downtown Houston.  Blood donations must be done at St. Luke’s directly. A- blood is a relatively rare blood type found in only 6.3% of Americans. If you’re not sure of your blood type, please stop by and find out – even if you’re not A-, and even if you’re not in Houston, somebody somewhere can use your blood.

Elisa Davila is a 12-year-old swimmer on the Aggie Swim Club in College Station, Texas.  Her mother, Claire, was diagnosed with Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) which is a rare and serious, life-threatening lung disease with no cure.  The disease occurs when the arteries and blood vessels in the lungs become constricted, causing undue stress on the right heart as it tries to pump blood into the lungs to replenish the lungs with oxygen.  Blood pressure in the lungs becomes elevated making it hard to breathe and even harder to do normal daily activities.  PH is a progressive disease that, if left untreated, can eventually lead to heart failure and death.  Some patients are fortunate to live for many years on medication alone.  However, many eventually become resistant to drugs and will require a lung transplant, or heart/lung transplant combination to survive.  PH is a relatively rare disease that affects approximately 1 in 100,000 – 1,000,000 people, with the majority being women between the ages of 20 – 50.  For more information on Pulmonary Hypertension go to www.phassociation.org.

Claire Davila has been in St. Luke’s hospital since December 1st and is at the point where she is in need of a heart/lung transplant.  At this time she is in need of donations of A- blood as the transplant surgery requires a lot of blood to replace what’s lost during the surgery.  Making the surgery more complicated, Claire’s blood unfortunately has some antibodies in it, making it harder to find blood to match.  All blood donations received on her behalf will be screened to ensure it does not have certain antigens that match the antibodies in her blood.  If the antigens are found, they cannot use that blood since the antibodies in her blood would attack the antigens in the donor’s blood.

Thanks to the Aggie Swim Club for providing the above information.

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Jennifer P
9 years ago

Does anyone know the minimum age to donate to Claire? We have a few 12 yr old swimmers that want to donate, but I can only find age requirements for donating to the “general blood supply.”

Heidi
9 years ago

I am O- And live in Galveston? Can you receive O-?

Christine Paige
9 years ago

I am A- and live in Houston. I will go today to donate!

Margaret
9 years ago

can I donate at one of the satellite St Lukes clinics? would next week be OK or is the need immediate?

Tim
9 years ago

O+ won’t work. O+ can only give to + blood types. O- can give to anyone. O negs are called universal donors.

Amanda Chow
9 years ago

Would O+ help at all? Both myself and my father are O+ and would love to help if we can especially since I used to coach for Ags and remember y’all well!

Sharon
9 years ago

I am a- and live in Austin. If there is still need next week, let me know and I’ll make a special trip to donate.

9 years ago

I have A- and will go downtown this afternoon to donate in her name. I appreciate how rare it is and would hope if I were ever in need, people would be able to jump in to help. I learned about this through the Houstonian. So glad they shared it with me! Will send my prayers as well!

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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