# @americanredcross on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C0UJBApso2e
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/72591449-americanredcross-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/3666168cee.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-12-01T15:01:35.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** American Red Cross (@americanredcross) — https://gondola.cc/americanredcross

## Caption

“17 years ago, I lost half my blood volume after delivering my son. I had scheduled a C-section. I had a difficult time when my daughter was born and so I wasn't sure how it was going to go with my son. I went home for about 10 days when I had a delayed hemorrhage. It was an emergent situation pretty quickly. I went to see my OB-GYN. Luckily, her office was at the hospital, so they just wheeled me down and did what ended up being a whole afternoon of emergency surgery. I needed a lot of blood — 15 units.

I am embarrassed to admit I had only given blood once before that. I was in the hospital for a little while and my first thought when I started getting better was there were all these things that I could do, but the most basic level of it was blood donation because if people hadn't given blood, I wouldn't be here to parent my children. I felt incredibly selfish for not having given that part of me as much as I should have before. I've tried to make up for it since then.

I've made blood donation a regular part of my life. My husband and my mom go [to donate blood]. I'm really proud that my son goes, too, and also that he recognizes the full circle moment of doing that and what it has to do with his own life. It's one of my proudest moments to be lying in the bed next to him giving blood. It's something I'll never forget.

I don't want people to have to go through what I did to understand why we all need to be donating blood as regularly as we can."

Earlier this year, we shared Brooke Wagner’s story of how she became an avid blood donor after losing half of her blood supply following her son's birth. We’re honored to highlight her story and the full-circle moment she had with him after he donated blood for the first time. We hope it inspires others to do the same! #StoriesThatInspire

#GiveWithMeaning #DonateBlood  #BloodDonor #DonateBloodSaveLives #GiveBloodSaveLives #SaveLives #HolidaySeason

## Stats

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- **Likes:** 762
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## Tags

holidayseason, givewithmeaning, blooddonor, storiesthatinspire, donateblood, savelives, donatebloodsavelives, givebloodsavelives

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