A blood donation drive was held on Saturday afternoon to help a one year-old baby battling a rare blood disorder.
Christopher Parent, Commander at Veterans of Foreign Wars post 9095 in Little Rock, said they wanted to do something to help the community and were able to get in touch with Our Blood Institute to host a blood drive to help Declan de Gury.
Ann de Gruy, Declan’s mother, said her son has already overcome so many challenges.
“He was hospitalized at two months old with a hemoglobin of 2 and he had to receive multiple blood transfusions,” Ann said. “After a bone marrow biopsy, he was diagnosed with Diamond-Blackfan Anemia.”
Ann said with Diamond-Blackfan Anemia, her son doesn’t produce red blood cells so he requires a blood transfusion every three weeks to survive and has already had 17.
Declan can only receive O negative blood, Ann said. “But there’s been a shortage on O negative blood and it’s just important to come donate.”
Josh Gwin with Our Blood Institute said since O negative is the universal donor, it is generally in high demand.
‘Seven percent of the population that donates is O negative,” Gwin said. “Our hospitals use 12 % so we have to get those O negative patients back throughout the year.
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