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Jeff and Julie Jantsch’s daughter Savannah was born with a rare bone marrow disease that prevented her body from producing platelets and red blood cells. At birth, Savannah’s platelet count was so low that she required a platelet transfusion within her first three hours of life. Doctors told her parents she would probably not survive to age five.
Blood transfusions soon became a normal part of Savannah’s life. Each week she would receive one unit of irradiated platelets from one random, single donor. Once every six weeks she required a transfusion of one unit of red blood cells.
According to her mother, Savannah didn’t think of herself as being ill. “It was all normal for her,” Julie says. “People at the hospital became our family--she saw them every week.”
In 1997 Savannah received a cord blood stem cell transplant. She no longer needs transfusions and says that “without donated blood and cord blood, I couldn’t have lived.”
“Blood donors are like water for us. They’re essential,” says Julie. “We thank all of them from the bottom of our hearts. If it wasn’t for them, Savannah wouldn’t be here today.
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"Blood donors are like water for us. They’re essential.”