Abbey, a paediatric care nurse, has firsthand experience with the benefits of Blood donations for children in need. Learn how blood donors help her save lives every day.

Abbey’s nursing career has included work in orthopaedics, plastic surgery, and the burns unit, but she discovered her true passion in caring for youngsters in the ICU. Abbey has spent the last five years working in the paediatric intensive care unit. It is a profession that requires her to treat some of Australia’s sickest children, which she would be unable to do without the crucial Blood Products provided by Australian blood donors.

Abbey adds that they use blood and blood products on every shift.Our job would be extremely tough if we didn’t have access to this life-saving medicine, and many of our patients would die.”

Blood donations save children’s lives in our intensive care unit and guarantee they receive the finest possible care.” – Paediatric nurse Abbey Baker

Abbey works in a paediatric intensive care unit, where she encounters all types of disease and damage. From little toddlers recovering from surgery to children suffering major illnesses. Whatever her patients’ conditions are, blood products will most likely be required in their treatment.

This requires Abbey and her colleagues to be able to give a variety of blood-based drugs in addition to blood transfusions.”We not only use red blood cells but plasma, cryoprecipitate and albumin, plus a range of other products such as Prothrombinex and IVIG.”In some situations, these blood products could mean the difference between life and death.

Abbey recalls one such case in which an infant developed difficulties following cardiac surgery.

“After the surgery, the baby developed an internal bleed. Being so small means babies don’t have much blood to lose so the bleed was serious.”

To save the little patient, Abbey and her team activated the hospital’s Massive Transfusion Protocol (MTP). “When we activate the MTP, the hospital blood bank will provide us with multiple blood products all at once so that they can be administered quickly.” In this case, the baby was given many blood transfusions and clotting agents. Fortunately, the team was able to stop the bleeding, giving the baby time to heal, but it was a near call that could have turned out very differently if it hadn’t been for the generosity of numerous Australians.

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