Our Red Cross Story: The Jokl Family

 By Sandy Habib, Red Cross Volunteer

In 2014 and early 2015, Lee and Kirsten Jokl were excited soon-to-be, first-time parents. By all accounts, Kirsten’s pregnancy was normal until early February 2015, when their son Elin was born six weeks prematurely. While being born so early can pose a huge challenge on its own, it was just the beginning of a slew of surgeries and procedures that Elin would soon face. 

Doctors quickly discovered that he was born with a blockage in his small intestine. At just 16 hours old, Elin underwent his first surgery. His medical team identified a blockage and removed the perforated section, thinking Elin’s problems were solved. Ten days later and still in the hospital, Elin’s body was fighting an infection in his bloodstream and became septic due to another blockage that doctors hadn’t previously discovered. He was then rushed to the Johns Hopkins Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where he received his first Red Cross blood transfusion. Within days, he needed another surgery and with it, another blood transfusion.

Elin Jokl underwent his first of five surgeries just 16 hours after he was born.

Professionally, Kirsten is a Senior Physician Assistant in the Adult Emergency Department at Johns Hopkins Hospital. This enabled the couple to be highly involved in nearly every aspect of Elin’s care. A large part of his care at the time included ongoing blood transfusions. Lee discussed options with Johns Hopkins and the Red Cross; the team approved a plan that enabled Lee to donate lifesaving blood that went straight to his son, known as a “directed donation.”

After six blood transfusions, five surgeries and nearly three months in the NICU, Elin was finally able to go home in late April 2015. Since then, Lee, Kirsten, and Elin welcomed another addition to the family, Eva, born in 2017, and they are all happy and healthy. Elin knows the story of his early months and shows off his prominent belly scars as badges of honor. He is currently busy preparing for another proud moment, his first day of kindergarten.

Elin Jokl is ready for his next milestone: kindergarten.

Meanwhile, Lee has been doing what he can to build awareness for the critical – and constant – need for blood donors. He works at T. Rowe Price, a large financial services firm, and helped support regular on-site blood drives prior to COVID-19; he is eager to continue these workplace drives once it is safe to do so.

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“Giving blood really is one of the easiest, most selfless things someone can do to have a huge, positive impact on another person. It means so much, as we know very personally.”

- Kirsten Jokl

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He stays engaged with the Red Cross as a Board Member for the Central Maryland Chapter. The Board promotes the need for financial and blood donations in the local community, among other organizational priorities that support the Red Cross mission. The group recently participated in Central Maryland’s August “Run for the Red,” a virtual race through which runners secured sponsorships and donations that went to the Red Cross. Lee participated in the inaugural event “Run for the Red” and enjoyed the experience and sharing his accomplishment with friends and family on social media. 

Elin is healthy today in large part because of the generosity of blood donors and the Red Cross. Based on their experience with the Red Cross, Lee and Kirsten are all too happy to give back and encourage others to do the same.

The happy Jokl family today.

 

Lee explains, “I greatly appreciate anyone who takes time out of their day to donate blood, as well as the Red Cross for getting it to those in need. It was a huge process to get Elin all the blood he needed in those early months and I’m eternally grateful for all that the Red Cross did to partner with the hospital and help save Elin’s life. He wouldn’t be here today without all that.” 

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Give the gift of life by rolling up your sleeve and donating blood today – you can save up to three lives with every selfless donation. 

Make an appointment here: https://www.redcrossblood.org

American Heart Month: Saving Lives

By Tanesha Hayes, Volunteer

February is all about health and love! It’s what we call, American Heart Month. The month was created to raise awareness and combat the disturbing fact that more than half the deaths in the U.S were caused by cardiovascular disease. This disease can affect both your health and social aspects of your life. Your exercise patterns, what you eat, family involvement, employment options and ability to have fun (say goodbye to crazy rides at amusement parks), are the most common aspects of people’s lives effected by cardiovascular disease. Not to mention, living with cardiovascular disease decreases life expectancy and increases your chance of depression. Heart health not only affects you but everyone close to you!

I encourage every person to take initiative and combat cardiovascular disease. You can do this by learning more about the heart, living a healthy life style, and preparing yourself to handle any cardiac crisis that could happen.

The American Red Cross understands the importance of heart health and that cardiac attacks could affect anyone within moment’s notice. Would you know what to do if someone near you needed saving? After taking the CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation)/AED (Automatic defibrillator) course, you will be trained and certified to save anyone during an emergency.

The CPR/AED course teaches students how to save a life during a cardiac or breathing emergency. To be more specific, this skill can be useful for saving an adult or child in cases of a heart attack, near drowning, or when a person’s heartbeat has stopped. Reid Heiser is a former student of the Red Cross’s CPR/AED course. The 17-year-old saved the life of Jim Hammer when he collapsed at the recreation center where Reid worked. This incident was unexpected and happened one week after completing his Red Cross CPR training. Both Reid and Jim are thankful for the CPR training and are now friends!

This month is about the love of our hearts- and others. Like Reid, you never know when you’ll have to perform a lifesaving act, but you’ll be proud when you know how!

If you are interested in learning more about the CPR/AED course, check out the Red Cross website.



Sources: 
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-3566-american-heart-month-1964
https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/cpr
https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/aed
https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/aed/using-an-aed
https://sites.google.com/a/cornell.edu/cardiovascular-disease-in-the-united-states/social-impacts

My Day at a Red Cross Blood Drive: Sandy Habib

By Sandy Habib, Volunteer

The American Red Cross urges people to share their good health and resolve to give blood regularly, beginning in January with National Blood Donor Month. Extreme winter weather in some parts of the country and seasonal illnesses often make it difficult for the American Red Cross to maintain a sufficient blood supply at this time of year. Healthy individuals are urged to give now. 

It’s widely known that the American Red Cross is in continuous need of blood donations. Winter, however, is an especially challenging time for the Red Cross to meet its blood demands for many reasons. Regular donors are often busy with the holidays and travel plans. Harsh winter weather and widespread cases of the flu can also be obstacles. The fact is, though, that the Red Cross must collect more than 2,500 platelet and about 13,000 blood donations every day for patients at about 2,500 hospitals nationwide. These blood products are perishable and need to be distributed to hospitals quickly, so it’s imperative that donors continue giving blood year-round to avoid delays in essential medical care.

Giving blood is a rewarding experience for those who are able to do their part and help patients in need. There are many of us, though, who, for a whole host of reasons, cannot donate blood. That doesn’t mean that we can’t make contributions in other ways. For example, on January 10, 2019, I was a Blood Donor Ambassador at a blood drive at the Red Cross office at 123 N. Alfred Street in Alexandria.

Here I am greeting donors as they arrive. This is a rewarding volunteer role
for anyone with free time on weekday afternoons (or some weekends).

As Ambassador, I greeted donors as they arrived and thanked them for coming in. Then I signed them in and provided them with their blood donation information. There was usually time before the donors were called in, so I had the opportunity to chat with them. I met one gentleman who has donated close to 100 times – incredible! I also spoke to some high school students who were excited about donating for the first time. Everyone was friendly and courteous, and I really enjoyed getting to meet all the donors. I commended them all on their selfless act of giving blood.

Like the donors, the staff was very sociable. They were professional, yet charismatic. They played lively music in the background which created a comfortable environment, putting donors at ease. My watch indicated that I volunteered for 3.5 hours, but since I spent the time with so many wonderful people, it felt as though it was about half of that.

The Red Cross blood staff works hard to make sure that facilities
are clean and comfortable for donors. This is the blood drive room
at the Red Cross office in Alexandria, VA. 

Even if you can’t donate blood, there are other ways you can help the cause. Like me, you can volunteer your time at a blood drive. You can make a financial donation. Maybe you can leverage your social media presence to donate your birthday/special occasion, honor someone special or start a virtual drive for your organization to encourage others to donate blood and/or money.  Even better, if you have a large, open space to host a blood drive, you can have up to 50 of your friends/colleagues/family members donate blood in a single day! There are many ways to make an important impact and promote blood drives in your community. The key is to find what works best for you and commit to helping the Red Cross.

Go to www.redcrossblood.org to learn more about how you can donate blood to help the Red Cross save lives.

To host a blood drive, go to the “Hosting a Blood Drive” or click here to learn more and apply!