Ashlee Ruvalcaba is alive thanks to the “gift of life.”
“If it wasn’t for donors, I wouldn’t be here today,” said the Atascadero resident, four years after facing a life-and-death health scare.
Her experience is why she’s now an advocate for blood donation and is hopeful the upcoming Vitalant (Formerly United Blood Services) Blood Drive on Monday, Jan. 21 will be a big success.
Her brush with death started in November 2014, when Ruvalcaba was 12 weeks pregnant, expecting her first child.
“I became ill with some kind of cold,” said Ruvalcaba. “After two weeks, it wasn’t getting better.”
To find out what was wrong, she checked into the Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton.
“My blood levels were constantly falling within hours, so they decided to transfer me up to Stanford via ambulance,” said Ruvalcaba. “it took four days to diagnose me with a rare blood disorder called TTP, which is thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. It’s three in a million people get it a year. It’s very rare and the only treatment for that is blood transfusions.”
Ruvalcaba not only needed a blood transfusion, she needed a staggering amount during the course of her recovery.
“I remember just asking the doctors and nurses, am I going to live?” Ruvalcaba said. “I know they pulled my mom aside and said, we don’t know what’s going to happen to your daughter, your grandbaby. It was that serious.”
Over the course of several weeks, she said he had 220 transfusions.
“They took out all of my blood, filtered the red blood and the platelets and put it all back in with donor plasma,” said Ruvalcaba. “Afterwards, I was like, 220 different people, strangers that I don’t know, saved my life.”
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