Children meet the special blood donors who helped them recover from heart surgery

Special University Health whole blood program gives children a fighting chance

Can you imagine how grateful you’d be if someone stepped forward to provide a special type of blood that would help your newborn recover from open heart surgery? What if you could actually meet your child’s donor and personally say thank you?

At our second Have a Heart Blood Donors celebration, the families of critically ill children who needed heart surgeries met the volunteer donors whose unique blood type gave their children a fighting chance at survival. Families were introduced to donors for the first time.

University Health Blood Donor Services identifies these donors through a complex process they perfected after working with the most advanced whole blood program in the region and one of the first in the country.

The blood donor program for heart kids got its start in November 2021 when several of our pediatric heart surgeons approached Dr. Leslie Greebon, the head of University Health’s blood services program. Their pediatric patients, including infants, were prone to developing antibodies that caused complications when transfused with individual blood components like red blood cells or plasma. The surgeons knew University Health had minimized bleeding and improved the survival of trauma patients by helping develop the use of whole blood, which contains all blood components, not just some. Could the blood donor team further refine whole blood so it would have fewer harmful antigens that could threaten a young child’s recovery?

University Health Blood Donor Services and its lab director embraced the challenge. They began identifying volunteers who had type O positive blood that did not contain the antigens that might lead to complications for young children. The blood services team then called upon these low-titer volunteers to donate blood when doctors had children who needed heart surgery. The number of children getting stronger with the help of this refined whole blood has grown. In 2024, 35 donors gave their special blood, sometimes on short notice, to aid the recovery of 39 children. 

Dr. Aaron Abarbanell, chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at University Health and UT Health San Antonio, said the whole blood minimizes the likelihood these children will need multiple transfusions.

“The donor blood helps prevent bleeding after surgery and helps children recover more quickly,” he said.

The program developed at University Health is leading the way. We are now helping other medical centers throughout the country who want to develop similar programs.

At our appreciation event, families met their children’s generous blood donors for the first time. It was an opportunity to say thank you and to recognize the innovation and commitment of our passionate medical teams that have developed the only program of its kind in South Texas.