By Charly SHELTON

Every two seconds in America, somebody needs a blood transfusion. The blood donated at donation centers and mobile blood drives is sourced to hospitals where it can go to someone who is in need of fresh blood. It could go to a patient with iron deficiency who needs red blood cells to increase iron and hemoglobin levels to carry oxygen through their body. It could go to someone in chemotherapy who cannot make enough platelets to heal themselves. Or, as happened in January, it can go to a little girl named Tesha who was born 12 weeks early and needed a blood transfusion to save her life.

“She’s two pounds and we’ve been driving every day from La Crescenta to Cedars-Sinai in Beverly Hills,” said Jeff Dolen, Tesha’s father. “It’s been a pretty traumatic first week or two, but things are looking good and she had a blood transfusion on day seven of her life. We wanted to give back to the blood bank.”

The Dolens had a baby shower planned for February, ahead of their daughter’s expected due date of March. Now with Tesha out in the world and getting stronger each day, thanks in part to the blood transfusion, the shower is still on and has become an opportunity to give back. The Cedars-Sinai bloodmobile will be parked outside their home during the baby shower to give attendees and any neighbors who would like to stop by the opportunity to donate blood. That one donation can make a difference in someone else’s life just as whoever donated the blood that went to Tesha made a difference in hers and her parents’.

“It’s probably just something simple that they did, just stop by and donate blood, and you don’t even think about where it goes after that. But it can make a huge difference in someone else’s life,” Dolen said. “They say like every two seconds someone needs blood in the United States and I’ve never [donated in] my whole life. This has made me aware now, obviously, with my child needing it.”

The Dolen family welcomes anyone who can stop by to come and donate blood at their baby shower at 2402 El Moreno St. in La Crescenta on Sunday, Feb. 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Cedars-Sinai bloodmobile will be parked on the street.

  Charly Shelton