UPDATED: April 29, 6:45 a.m.
Loretta Brzozowski has been at Roxborough Memorial Hospital for more than 10 days, and she’s been on a ventilator for almost as long.
Her oxygen levels are dangerously low.
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“All of her other numbers — her blood pressure, her heart rate — they are all good,” said her son, Rick Brzozowski. “Normal people oxygenate in the upper 90s — 95% to 100%. She is only at 80% right now.”
Doctors ordered the 76-year-old to receive a plasma transfusion with the antibodies from someone who has recovered from COVID-19 — and they’ve been calling the Red Cross for it since Friday, to no avail.
“Neither the chief medical officer at the hospital nor the infectious disease head there can get in touch with anybody to find out exactly where it is,” said Brzozowski.
As of Tuesday, he’s still just sitting, waiting, praying the plasma will come before it’s too late.
“It would give me a chance to save my mom,” he said. “My dad has been gone 31 years. He died when I was 12 years old, so it has been just my mom and I. We have been there for each other; we have fought for each other.”
Brzozowski said his mother’s blood type is A-positive. The Red Cross has a plasma donation registry, consisting of plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients. The antibodies could help other people fight off the virus.
A spokeswoman for the American Red Cross Penn Jersey Blood Region said Tuesday they are working on the request.
"The Red Cross received an order for convalescent plasma from Roxborough Memorial Hospital on April 24. The Red Cross is currently working to get in touch with the patient’s medical team and locate an available convalescent plasma unit to help this patient in need."
The Red Cross says they have distributed hundreds of convalescent plasma products, and they're expecting to identify, qualify and collect hundreds more this week to distrubute. THe agency expressed gratitude to recovered COVID-19 patients who are making donations, trying to help others in need.
"We recognize that so many want to provide support during this pandemic and the Red Cross continues to work aggressively to fulfill these emerging needs for patients across the country through our humanitarian mission.”
Meanwhile, Brzozowski says, he is thinking of his family.
"She has two grandchildren,” he said, “my oldest son, Bryce, and my youngest son, Connor, who absolutely adore her, and I don’t want them to be robbed of the chance to grow up (with) their grandmother.”
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