Katie Zerr and Sam Dudley nearly lost their son, Elliott Zerr, who was born Jan. 25, 2021, severely anemic. Blood from anonymous donors is credited with saving his life or, at the very least, preventing serious illness. This Jan. 25, there will be a Red Cross blood drive in honor of Elliott on his first birthday, scheduled from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Eureka Springs Community Center Highlander Room.
You sign up to donate at redcrossblood.org and search for donor code elliottzerr. Katie said it is important for people to sign up online, so the Red Cross knows how many people to send to staff the event.
“The Red Cross provides snacks and I’m going to bring cake for Elliott’s birthday,” Katie said.
Katie was in labor with Elliott a year ago when his heart rate dropped dangerously low, necessitating an emergency cesarean section.
“It was super scary,” she said. “The energy in the room was definitely nervous. And when Elliott finally came out, he didn’t cry. I later learned that the nurses were really working hard to get that kid going. Finally, after what seemed like a really long time, he made his first sound, which was exactly like a cat. He looked rough, but he was alive.”
The day after he was born, they realized he was very jaundiced, yellow discoloration of a newborn baby’s skin and eyes, that occurs because the baby’s blood contains an excess of a yellow pigment of red blood cells. Later that evening, when a whole team of medical staff came into their hospital room, his parents realized this was not a good sign.
“The doctor told us that Elliott was severely anemic and it was maybe due to an incompatibility between our blood types, and he needed a blood transfusion,” Katie said. “Like now. So, they took my baby up to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Sam pushed me in a wheelchair to the NICU, we scrubbed our arms up to the elbows while a two-minute timer ran, then we walked to the bay where the NICU babies were. Elliott was in the back left corner surrounded by nurses. One nurse told me his veins kept popping because he was dehydrated, and she couldn’t get a needle in him.”
Then the doctor that came into their room earlier said that she would need to go through his belly button to deliver donor blood. Katie said this pushed her over the edge. She cried and Sam vowed to be a blood donor for life. Later they watched while donor blood was inserted into Elliott through a tube into where his umbilical cord stump was an hour before.
“It was coiled and taped to his little belly and ran up to a container of donor blood,” Katie said. “Little mitts were taped over his hands so he couldn’t pull this tube out. I told the NICU nurses that I never realized how much people appreciate blood donors until then. I asked if it was possible to thank the donor whose blood was now in my baby. They weren’t sure – they said maybe anonymously.”
He needed a second transfusion the next day. After six days, they were able to take Elliott home.
In the months that followed, they learned that it is likely that Elliott either was born with Infantile Pyknocytosis (usually shaped red blood cells, which goes away) or, more likely, he bled into Katie at least a couple months before he was born.
“By some stroke of luck, I guess, the bleed stopped, but he wasn’t able to replace the lost blood before his birth,” Katie said. “Without the donor blood he received, he could have died, but at the very least would have developed cerebral palsy. I cry every time I think about standing outside the doors of the NICU, having no idea what was wrong with my baby or if he would be OK, and waiting for a tube of some generous stranger’s blood to empty into his tiny body. It was surreal.”
Now she wants to help others who need blood infusions by celebrating Elliott’s first birthday with the blood drive.
“If you would like to give a donation of blood in honor of Elliott, I would love that and appreciate it from the deepest place in my heart,” Katie said. “I promise you that the recipient of your blood, and that person’s mother, will appreciate you more than you could ever imagine.”
On its website, the American Red Cross warns that blood supplies are greatly needed.
“This is serious,” the Red Cross states. “We are experiencing the worst blood shortage in over a decade. The dangerously low blood supply levels have forced some hospitals to defer patients from major surgery, including organ transplants. Your donation is desperately needed this holiday season. Please schedule an appointment to give now.”