For many, blood transfusions are a routine part of their care, care they can’t live without.
Barbara Totten is one of those people.
“It’s this or nothing. So getting this blood is life saving for me,” Totten said.
Trips to Baptist Health Louisville are a near monthly occurrence. She said she’s on a first name basis with her nurses, and it’s become part of her life.
“The hospital, the transfusions, the cardiologist, hematologist, I’ve got so many -ists in my life,” she said.
It all started with a breast cancer diagnosis 16 years ago. That led her doctors to discover she had congestive heart failure. A condition that means her heart can’t pump blood as well as it should.
“I’m the poster child for what not to do. I didn’t completely listen to my doctor, because I felt fine,” she said.
Totten beat breast cancer, then conquered uterine cancer about four years later, all while her heart condition worsened. Then there was a defibrillator and pacemaker, but in 2021 doctors decided it was time for open heart surgery to add a device to pump blood for her.
“We have no other choice,” she said.
Damage to her blood cells is a side effect of the pump.
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