More than 400,000 babies are born prematurely in the U.S. each year, and many of them will need a blood transfusion, or many transfusions, to survive.
For one family, the challenges their premature son went through inspired them to give back in his memory with blood drives.
Antonio Casali was born at 23 weeks old at one pound two ounces, and like all babies his size, he needed help.
He was on life support for the first 10 weeks of his life and needed several blood transfusions.
“He had over 17 blood transfusions,” said his mother, Melanie Casali. “He would sometimes have two in one day, so it was a lot. I couldn’t imagine if they told us, ‘I’m sorry we don’t have any blood available,’ I mean that would be devastating.”
In time, Antonio made it out of the NICU, but as his seventh birthday approached, complications related to his prematurity became too much. He passed on June 24, 2022.
That inspired his family to think of blood drives.
“Doing a blood drive on or around his birthday and trying to make it grow as big as possible, I mean, we have over 71 people for our first blood drive,” said Melanie.
If anyone is interested in hosting their own blood drive, they can contact the American Red Cross.
You can donate tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. at the Gardner White furniture stores in Ann Arbor, Auburn Hills, Novi, and Taylor.
Gardner White stores in Canton, Howell, Saginaw, Shelby Township, Warren on 14 Mile and Waterford will also be hosting blood drives on Thursday.
For more about how to sign up to donate at one of these blood drives, visit here.
