Donations rise for Millington girl suffering from Covid-linked illness
A Millington mother’s pleas to find blood platelets for her 6-year-old were heard as Memphis-area blood banks saw a major influx of donors, giving her child and others needed help.
Hattie Lucille Shell entered Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital about six weeks ago with multisystem inflammatory syndrome caused by COVID-19, also known as MIS-C, and desperately needed blood platelets to help further her treatment.
Hattie’s parents Kady and Wes Shell took to Facebook to “beg” for people to donate blood, specifically AB negative blood and platelets — a very rare blood type as only 1% of the population has it, according to Vitalant, a nonprofit blood bank.
“She’s getting blood platelets like water now,” Kady Shell said.
Vitalant blood banks in the Memphis-area saw a nearly 40% increase of donations from Sept. 2-7 compared to the same time in 2020, said spokesperson Stephanie Kizziar.
Kizziar said “the real stunner” is firsttime donors increased by 200%.
“We saw a pretty significant amount of donors and that was really exciting for us,” Kizziar said.
Kady Shell said one of the hospital’s pathologists received calls from local blood banks asking if Hattie was a patient since people were donating in her name.
“We were just overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity and support that we got with people volunteering to donate platelets and all blood products really,” Kady Shell said.
Dozens of people messaged her on Facebook from Tennessee, New Jersey, Texas, Washington, Oklahoma and Wisconsin to tell her they donated for Hattie.
Kady Shell said her family from Wisconsin drove four hours to reach a Vitalant blood drive in Chicago where the phlebotomists already knew about Hattie, calling the number of donations for her a “northern storm.”
Kady Shell’s Facebook posts updating the public on Hattie reached up to 1,800 likes and nearly 500 shares.
“I don’t even have a thousand friends on Facebook,” Kady Shell said. “I never in a million years thought that thousands of people would see anything I wrote down, however it helped my baby and that’s all that matters.”
Hattie remained in Le Bonheur’s intensive care unit until Sept. 2 when she was moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for further treatment after MIS-C uncovered another rare disease in her.
Doctors diagnosed Hattie with secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, commonly referred to as HLH — a disorder triggered by a virus that produces an abundance of infection-fighting cells which leads to inflamed and damaged organs, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Hattie receives chemotherapy treatments for HLH at St. Jude, although it is not cancer, and her mother said the doctors find her making “very small but measurable improvements.”
Doctors began weening Hattie off paralytics and ventilators Monday and by Wednesday she could squeeze her parents’ fingers, shake her head and blink to communicate, her mom said.
Hattie’s recovery would not be possible without the help of blood and platelet donors, her mom said and she hopes people continue to help local hospitals.
“Hattie’s not the only child that needs blood or platelets or plasma,” Kady Shell said. “When this is over, however that comes to be, don’t forget that there is always someone who needs help.”
Kizziar said Vitalant is always in need of blood, platelets and plasma donations for hospitals.
To learn more information about donating visit the Vitalant website at www.vitalant.org.
Dima Amro covers the suburbs for The Commercial Appeal and can be reached at Dima.amro@commercialappeal.com.