GRANVILLE, Ohio — According to the American Red Cross, every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood, and one donation can help save more than one life.
What You Need To Know
- Robin Sharps’ life was saved by blood donations
- Sharp suffered from a pulmonary embolism and had massive clots in her chest
- She needed 114 units of blood to save her
- Since then, she’s been working with the American Red Cross to host blood drives in her name
Robin Sharps is living proof of that.
It all began when she was taking her dogs out to play.
“My dogs… they ran into the back of my knee and took my knee out, and I needed to have surgery on my tibia,” Sharps said.
But little did she know her world was about to turn upside down.
“I had my very first PT appointment, and just as I was walking out the door, I felt a wave come over me,” she said. “I was lightheaded and felt sick and nauseous and to the point where I didn’t think that I could drive myself. Called my husband, and I started getting sick. Then I went into cardiac arrest.”
Sharps later learned she was suffering from a pulmonary embolism and had massive clots in her chest, but she said what saved her was the 114 units of blood donated by strangers.
“Because they did that, I’m alive today,” said Sharps. “They gave me the gift of life. They gave me the opportunity to celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary with my husband. They gave me more time with my two children. Their selfless act, I call it ‘heroic’.”
While she counts herself fortunate, Sharps often thinks of those needing blood transfusions.
“I’m hoping that my story inspires others to donate blood to think, ‘well, this could be my mom or my sister or my friend that’s in need,’” Sharps said. “Before last summer, I would have been the last person on earth that I thought that would have donated blood, and yet, I needed so much.”
Sharps has worked with the American Red Cross to set up a blood drive.
To learn more about giving blood, go here.
