MILTON, Ga. — When a tragedy befalls you, hope that your response is as life-affirming as Kate Luevano’s effort to spread awareness about a rare, yet preventable, disease.
A couple weeks after World Alloimmunization and Hemolytic Disease of the Fetus and Newborn Day March 12, Luevano held her second blood drive with LifeSouth.
Last summer, Luevano gave birth to her daughter, Josephine Anne. Because of an undiagnosed case of alloimmunization and HDFN, Luevano’s pregnancy resulted in a stillbirth and the loss of her daughter.
In rare cases, a woman will develop maternal alloimmunization or a red cell antibody when exposed to a different blood type. The exposure to an unknown blood type, during pregnancy, childbirth or a blood transfusion, can cause a mother’s antibodies to attack the unborn child’s red blood cells. If left untreated, hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn — the baby’s condition — can have devastating consequences ranging from anemia to death.
“Just in my own research trying to figure out what happened, I stumbled across the Allo Hope Foundation,” Luevano said. “They’re an amazing foundation.”
The Allo Hope Foundation, with its mission to prevent harm, stillbirth and infant death caused by alloimmunization and HDFN, helped Luevano with individual support, connection to a community, life-saving education, up-to-date research and expert medical professionals.
“That became my connection to wanting to do a blood drive in the first place,” Luevano said. “I needed something to do at a time when I felt so powerless.”
She said she formed a special connection with the founder of the nonprofit, who also lost a daughter to the disease.
The first drive Nov. 19 saw dozens of people turn out and donate 60 pints of blood.
City of Milton Communications Director Greg Botelho helped Luevano spread the word…
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