Local plasma effort gets underway in hopes of aiding critical virus patients
With no effective drugs and no vaccine yet for COVID-19, an experimental therapy that uses the blood of those who survived the virus is getting underway nationwide, including in Kern County.
Houchin Community Blood Bank expects to collect its first plasma donation from a local person who recovered from COVID-19 this week. Convalescent plasma, as it’s known, uses a recovered patient’s blood plasma, which is rich in antibodies, to neutralize the virus in the body of someone with a serious or life-threatening COVID-19 infection. The blood bank is working with several doctors at area hospitals to identify which patients will receive the plasma.
“It is a kind of moral responsibility that after recovery of this deadly disease to donate plasma if medically capable and eligible. This could potentially save another human being in critical condition,” Dr. Arash Heidari, an infectious disease physician at Kern Medical who is working on the local plasma effort, wrote in an email. “This is how we share our blessings of life.”
Jamie Rosenblad, a 19-year-old Bakersfield resident who recently recovered from COVID-19, plans to contribute to the supply, she said.
“I would be more than happy to give my plasma to help people in need because people really do need it,” Rosenblad said. “I would do anything to help people get through this awful time.”
‘I WILL FIGHT’
Rosenblad and her family know firsthand just how nightmarish the virus can be. Her mother, Lisa Mundy, 40, has been in an induced coma and on a ventilator in the intensive
care unit at Bakersfield Heart Hospital for almost two weeks now battling COVID-19. While mother and daughter became sick around the same time, Mundy, who has an underlying lung disease, developed critical complications.
It started in the middle of the night a couple of weeks ago when Rosenblad awoke to a call on her cellphone from her mother in her bedroom nearby. Rosenblad rushed into her room and realized her mom was having major breathing problems and “was blue from head to toe.” She immediately called an ambulance.
“Her doctor said if I hadn’t called the ambulance I would’ve found my mom dead in her bed the next morning,” Rosenblad said.
Later that day, Rosenblad found out her mom had tested positive for COVID-19.
I’ll be OK. I love you. Just stay strong for you and your brother, her mom wrote in a text message.
Mundy was put into an induced coma and put on a ventilator hours later.
I am strong, I will fight and
I will make it out of this, was the last text Mundy sent her daughter.
“She really didn’t want to be intubated. It was her internist doctor that convinced her,” said Rhonda Mundy, Lisa’s mother, who has been communicating with doctors since visitors are not allowed at the hospital. “She sent me a quick text because she couldn’t talk.”
Mom, I’m not afraid anymore, the text said.
“People don’t really realize how serious this is,” Rhonda Mundy said. “People don’t understand, it’s not you, possibly, or the men out golfing at RiverLakes that I drove by yesterday. It’s other people that have health issues, like
my daughter” who can get the virus and potentially die from it, she said.
“If they thought they could lose one of their children, people would stop and think about it a little more. ... We’re in the middle of this, so it’s really difficult.”
Rhonda Mundy and her husband also contracted the virus. The couple, who now live in Oceanside, had come to Bakersfield a few weeks ago to sell a home they own here when they fell ill.
Ever since, they’ve been living through the ordeal in an otherwise empty house, with just two chairs, a TV and a mattress to sleep on. They didn’t have a thermometer to check their temperatures when they started to feel ill but when Rhonda then lost her sense of taste, a common symptom with COVID-19, they knew they likely had it. Tests later confirmed their suspicion.
But Rhonda said perhaps it was meant to be since they are here to help their grandchildren deal with their mom’s illness.
Late last week, while on a ventilator, Lisa Mundy’s lung collapsed and she had emergency surgery. She’s doing better since then, Rosenblad said. Her fever is gone and her oxygen levels are up.
“Her lungs are getting better. I’m hoping she stays on this
track,” Rosenblad said. “Obviously there’s going to be bad days but I’m hoping there will be more good days than bad.”
Doctors have told the family Lisa Mundy will need to stay on a ventilator for six weeks and to expect ups and downs.
“This is a roller coaster ride for the next six weeks,” Rhonda Mundy said.
IN THIS TOGETHER
Another local woman who has recovered from the virus also plans to donate plasma. Karen Berhow, who recently turned 65, believes she contracted COVID-19 while working at a convenience store in Buttonwillow, right off Interstate 5. Her illness was moderate, she has said, and did not require hospitalization or medical attention.
“I am certainly not glad I am sick,” Berhow said, “but it will make me feel very good if I can end up helping other people from it.”
Using blood plasma is not a new technique to treat illness. Houchin CEO Brad Bryan said it was used to treat people during the Spanish flu and the recent Ebola crisis.
“I’m speaking with a lot of other CEOs across the nation that have collected one or two collections and patients that got it are
doing better,” Bryan said.
Data on the effectiveness of plasma infusions is not readily available, but some early reports suggest it can help in some cases, Heidari of Kern Medical said.
Just as with blood transfusions, blood types have to be compatible between donor and recipient.
So whether Rosenblad’s blood could potentially be used to help her mother, for example, would depend on their blood types, Heidari said.
“But remember, I can save her mother and she can save my brother,” he said. “We are all in this together.”