DES MOINES, Iowa — Hospitals and blood centers are always trying to avoid shortages. Someone needs blood every two seconds, and less than 10% of the eligible U.S. population donates annually. 

For one Fontanelle, Iowa woman, a perfect-match platelet donation helped save her life.

Andrea McNeese, 33, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia on August 15. In the weeks following, she was hospitalized at Iowa Methodist Medical Center and given 13 transfusions of platelet blood donations. But they weren’t reacting well with her body until the 14th donation.

“The amazing team that I had said, ‘okay, stop, we’ve got to do something. We’ve got to investigate a little bit further to find a different answer.’ And with LifeServe’s help, they did a gene test on my blood and was able to find a perfect match for me,” McNeese said.

“She was making these antibodies that were coming in and they were destroying all the platelets that were being transfused,” Medical Director of LifeServe Blood Center Dr. Alex Smith said. “Because of that, we had to do a genotype on her and look at her genes to see what those proteins are in her platelets. And then we had to go out and we had to find donors who had the same proteins on their platelets. So it’d be an exact physical match.”

There are three components to blood donations: red blood cells, plasma and platelets. So what’s different about platelet donations?

“Red blood cells tend to be a lot of trauma patients or people that are anemic or that have bleeding,” Dr. Smith said. “Platelets are more for people that need help with stopping bleeding in specific situations like leukemia, like Andrea, because oftentimes your body just is not making enough platelets.”

Platelets only last about five days so finding matches is sometimes difficult. McNeese’s donor match came in a few days earlier than scheduled to donate, helping provide a new transfusion for her. 

McNeese knows this world. She used to donate blood in high school and college, but now she’s on the other end of it.

“I do think that it’s such a humbling blessing for it to be able to come full circle, be able to not only survive, but thrive,” she said. 

Now, McNeese is advocating for others to step up and donate. Blood centers and hospitals are always in need.

“The need for blood is great. We know there is a shortage of donors,” Chelsy Funaro, Trauma Service at Iowa Methodist Medical Center, said. “A normal, everyday person can save a life by donating blood.”

“These are medicines. If we need more, we can’t just ramp up the supply in a factory. This is something that comes from somebody donating out of the kindness of the heart because they want to help other people,” Dr. Smith said.

“Every donation saves a life. Even if you don’t think that you need it now, later on down the road, you just might,” McNeese said.

McNeese is doing better now but is still fighting leukemia. She’ll likely need another platelet transfusion but they don’t know when that will be. She’s just encouraged that there is someone out there who is a match for her. She’s expressed her gratitude to her donors, but she does not know who they are.

Donating platelets takes about two hours and could save a life. For more information, visit LifeServeBloodCenter.org