By ARCAN Board member, Roger Lowe

“I owe my life to the skill and dedication of my doctors, nurses, and surgeon, the support of my family and friends, and the blood donors whose generosity made those transfusions possible.”

Stephanie Millian never imagined during her American Red Cross career promoting blood donations that she herself would need lifesaving blood.

But that’s exactly what happened in 2005 when she was hospitalized with a massive blood clot and multiple pulmonary emboli, which led to five days in intensive care during a three-week hospital stay. As the medical team tried multiple clot-busting procedures and inserted a filter to prevent additional clots from reaching her lungs, Stephanie’s platelet and red blood cell counts dropped dangerously low. 

“One moment from the ICU has stayed with me ever since: my doctors asked whether I would accept a blood transfusion and told me that without it, I would not survive,” she recalls. She received several platelet transfusions and a red blood cell transfusion, which gave her body enough strength for the doctors to successfully dissolve the clot.

“In the days, weeks, and years that followed, more than one physician told me they didn't expect me to survive,” she said. “Recovery was long and challenging; I spent three months relearning how to walk, one step at a time...."

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By Ed Robertson 

“Along the way in the Boston journey, I transported caseworkers from the chapter to a local service center after a 24-family fire. One of them was a very special woman who accepted my proposal, and we were married in June 1958. We were a Red Cross family.”

More than 70 years ago, on March 19, I was sitting in my small apartment in Boston’s Back Bay area listening to my radio and watching the snow come down. At the end of an hourly local newscast, there was a public service announcement that changed to course of my life.

I was still in college and had also received a Local Preacher License from the Methodist Church in Medford, MA where I then worked part time as an assistant to the minister. But on March 19, 1956, the Boston area was snowed in so I was home.

From History of the Boston Fire Department and Boston Fire Alarm System 1859-1973 by William Werner. “The month of March 1956, produced much snow: there were blizzards on March 16, 19 and 24, resulting in a total snowfall of about 29 inches in 8 days, greatly hindering department operations.”

The Public Service Announcement said that many of the local Red Cross volunteers could not get to the chapter because of the snow. The Red Cross needed additional volunteers who could get to the chapter at the corner of Comm Ave. and Gloucester St. I lived only a block away so off I went to volunteer. 

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