Meet Jillian, who is thankful for the transfusions that saved her life
Jillian Lewis, of Newark, Delaware, knows firsthand the lifesaving power of blood donation – because it helped saved her life.
One night, she ended up getting really sick, and she thought it was just a stomach bug. But, it kept getting serious, to the point where she was vomiting blood. So, her husband took her to the E.R. in Middletown, at 10:30 p.m. that night.
“When they realized I was vomiting blood and they could no longer help me, they had to life flight me to Christiana [Hospital] at 4:30 in the morning,” Jillian said. She was referring to the process whereby patients are flown to the hospital in cases of serious emergencies.
“I had emergency surgery and a ton of blood transfusions,” Jillian said. “When I got better, I said, I have to give back.”
So, she started donating blood, mentioned it to her friends, and they pledged to donate blood happily with her. Therefore, Jillian, Christine Michael, Juli Schultz, and Valerie Thomson have made a tradition of donating blood together at Blood Bank of Delmarva’s Christiana Donor Center.
“So it’s a thing we do. We donate blood, and then we go to dinner,” said Jillian, who just donated on June 2. “The staff knows us now. They’ll say, oh, where are you going to dinner tonight? It’s just a little something we can do to help. We’re happy to do it.”
