Here are the details on the young Boy Scout here in Colorado who desperately needs O Negative blood. He is in one of our local Boy Scout councils, and that’s how I got involved in trying to help find donors for him.
Justin was camping with his family a couple of days ago and was bitten by a Black Widow spider. When they went to the hospital they discovered his low white blood cell count, and he was diagnosed with leukemia.
Then infection set in.
Right now he is having the bone marrow test to determine what type of Leukemia he has, as well as the spinal tap to begin chemotherapy. Today is Day 0 of his treatment. The infection is “ravaging” his body and they said if they can’t get it under control within the week, they will probably lose him.
As it was told to me, antibiotics aren’t helping because antibiotics work with white blood cells and Justin has almost no white blood cells right now, which is why the desperate need for O Negative blood donors.
The hospital contacted registered blood donors (for O negative blood types) and have this week covered for donations but need people to sign up for next week and the week after that and perhaps beyond. I’m told that it takes three days to process the donation before they can give it to Justin, but they can’t keep the blood, once donated, for very long because the quality degrades – so they’ll need ongoing donations for a while.
If you or anybody you know can help, please email me here.
By the way, you can send Justin a card through the Children’s Hospital website. Just select the design you’d like to send, fill out the information, and the hospital will print it out and deliver it to Justin. You can send Justin a card here. His full name, which you need for the card, is Justin Campbell.
Get well soon Justin!
I wish I lived in Colorado, still. Both my husband and I (and of course the kids, but they’re too young to donate) have O-. Impractical to donate since we’re so far away.
We’ll be thinking of Justin.
His full name is at the end of that sentence about the card. 🙂 It’s “Justin Campbell”.
Thank you!!
Annie,
The hospital site requires a full name. All I see is “Justin.”
Peg