Tag Archives: blood transfusion

40 Pints: A Life, a Loss, and a Lifesaving Mission

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One day in April 2021, George Delaney lay in a Boston, Massachusetts hospital. He was exhausted. It had been a long four months. In January 2021, doctors diagnosed him with bladder cancer. At first, they thought it would be a “small problem,” his wife, Bridget, recounts, “but it became a big problem. Everything they tried exhausted him.”

Bridget Delaney-Messana (left) and George Delaney (right) in a vibrant garden—a reminder of their incredible journey together.

During his treatment, blood transfusions were his lifeline and an important source of relief. The tumor made George bleed profusely. It tired him and “made him incredibly anemic,” says Bridget. Blood transfusions were “his survival for many months. It was the only way he got relief and energy.”

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A Life Saved, Many Roles Played — Thanks to Blood Donors

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Calvanay Nunley is proud to call herself a mother and a sickle cell patient advocate

“I have really depended on blood transfusions my whole life,” says Calvanay Nunley. “If we didn’t have donors, I don’t know where I would be.”

Calvanay has relied on donors since she began receiving blood transfusions at the age of five. Blood transfusions are an important part of her treatment for sickle cell disease, the most common genetic blood disorder in the U.S. Sickle cell disease distorts soft and round red blood cells and turns them hard and crescent shaped. As a result, blood has difficulty flowing smoothly and carrying oxygen to the rest of the body, which may lead to severe pain, tissue and organ damage, anemia, and even strokes.

Without regular red blood cell exchanges every three weeks – known as apheresis – Calvanay might not be able to call herself a mother, nurse, children’s camp director, non-profit founder and sickle cell patient advocate. “I wear many hats,” she says.

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