Elizabeth's Story

Her job helped save her baby’s life.

Elizabeth’s third child, baby boy Mazirik, born in the evening of November 30th, weighed a healthy 8 pounds, 6 ounces. Everything proceeded normally until the following night, when her baby began spitting up blood. At first, only small amounts. But by 2 a.m. a doctor told her that her newborn was now throwing up large amounts of blood and would need to be transferred to a pediatric hospital.

Elizabeth rushed down to the nursery to see her son. The nurses lifted his blanket and Elizabeth was shocked to see the quantity of blood her child had vomited. Although a frightening situation, she knew that the blood transfusions would help him. Elizabeth works at South Texas Blood & Tissue Center and processes the blood her son would receive. She said, “I was at ease with him receiving it. We have good workers. We do a good job.”

Shortly after arriving at Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital, Mazirik received his first unit of red blood cells. Jaundice had set in and he bled continually from his mouth and rectum. During the next 24 hours, his little body had 5 transfusions of red blood cells and one of plasma. The flow finally subsided and doctors were able to do a series of examinations. The test results showed gastritis, an inflammation of the stomach lining, manifested in three ulcers, an extremely rare condition in infants.

Mazirik could not eat normally for four days. He remained in the hospital 10 days, while he slowly recovered. Fortunately, his prognosis is good. His medications, special formula and strict feeding schedule are designed to speed his recovery.

Now it means even more.
Elizabeth commented, “I always knew I was doing something that helped people, but now it means more. It’s extra special.” Elizabeth is part of a highly-skilled team at STBTC that takes a unit of donated whole blood and separates it into various high quality components for transfusion. Human blood is a complex fluid that contains red blood cells, platelets, white blood cells and various proteins. Each transfused component has a specific life-saving purpose.

“Like most people, I didn’t think anyone in my family would need it. At one point the doctor mentioned that Mazirik might need something to help clot his blood. I asked, ‘Do you mean cryo?’” (Cryoprecipitate is a blood component that promotes clotting.) When the doctor inquired how she knew about that, Elizabeth replied, “I process that every day.”

Elizabeth commented further, “We tend to think there’s lots of people out there donating, so I don’t need to. When something like this happens, it hits home. You just never know when you or someone you love might need it. Give blood – it’s that simple.”