How blood donors help paediatric nurses save little lives
As a paediatric care nurse, Abbey has seen first-hand what blood donations can do for a child in need. Discover how blood donors help her save lives every day.
In her nursing career, Abbey has worked in orthopaedics, plastic surgery, and the burns unit, but she found her true calling in caring for children in the ICU. For the past five years, Abbey has worked in the paediatric intensive care unit. It’s a role that has her treating some of the sickest children in Australia and it’s something she couldn’t do without the vital blood products supplied by Australian Blood donors. Abbey explains, “We use blood and blood products on every shift…our job would be very difficult if we did not have access to this life-saving treatment and many of our patients would not survive.”
"Blood donations save the lives of children in our intensive care unit and ensure they receive the best treatment we can offer them.” - Paediatric nurse, Abbey Baker
Working in a paediatric intensive care ward, Abbey sees all kinds of illness and injury. From little kids recovering from surgery to children fighting serious diseases. Whatever condition her patients are experiencing, there’s a good chance that blood products will be required in their treatment. For Abbey and her team, this means knowing how to administer not just blood transfusions, but a range of blood-based medicines. “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 cases, these blood products can be the difference between life and death.
Abbey recalls one such event where an infant experienced complications post-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 tiny 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 received multiple blood transfusions and clotting agents. Thankfully, the team were able to stop the bleeding, giving the baby time to recover, but it was a close call and one that could have gone very differently if it wasn’t for the donations of countless Australians.
Like every healthcare professional working in her ward, Abbey knows the vital role blood donations can play in the ICU. That’s why she’s calling on more Australians to roll up their sleeves to help nurses like her continue to provide life-saving care. “Please consider giving blood. Blood donations save the lives of children in our intensive care unit and ensure that they receive the best treatment we can offer them.”
If you want to help nurses like Abbey save lives, book a donation. And if you donate between Mon 8 April – Sun 12 May you’ll receive a limited-edition artist-designed bandage celebrating Australia’s Healthcare workers.
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