Blood donations important in newborn’s fight against cancer at Sacred Heart in Spokane

With three children already at home, Cat Harner knew what a baby was supposed to look like. So when her newborn, Thomas, was placed on her chest after birth on Dec. 8, she started worrying right away.

“He had lumps and bruises on his head and back. That was the first indication that something was wrong,” she said.

The next problem was baby Thomas’ platelet count. Platelets are cells in the blood that help with clotting and prevent bleeding. An average count for healthy babies is somewhere around 200,000. Thomas had just 19.

“They thought it was a lab error so they did it again and it was 15,” Harner said.

Thomas was put on a helicopter and flown from Gritman Medical Center in Moscow, where the Harner family lives, to Sacred Heart Medical Center. Doctors were initially baffled by his blood cells, but eventually came back with a diagnosis on Dec. 19: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He started chemotherapy the next day.

Since birth, Thomas has needed about 30 blood transfusions. He’s received platelets, whole blood and plasma to help replenish his supplies after chemo and get his counts back up to where they should be.

Harner has donated blood in the past, but said she’s always assumed it went to trauma patients who were in accidents. Now, she’s working with the Inland Northwest Blood Center to put on a blood drive in honor of her son, who’s still fighting for his life.

“I never realized what blood drives went to,” she said. “It’s for cancer patients. It’s for the kid next door.”

The INBC drive will run Feb. 5-11 at its fixed locations in Spokane and Pullman, as well as a bus that travels to Moscow once a week. Tesia Hummer, a spokeswoman for INBC, said the goal is to replenish the blood Thomas has needed and make sure blood is available for other cancer patients.

About 30 percent of INBC’s blood supply goes to cancer patients, and another 15 percent to heart patients, she said.

Especially for patients receiving multiple transfusions, matching with a blood donor is about more than blood type. People may have antibodies that react to another person’s blood, even if the type is the same. More blood available means a greater chance a donor will be a good match for Thomas, which minimizes the risk of a reaction to the transfusion.

“There’s still always blood, it’s just a matter of how great of a match it is,” Hummer said.

Platelet donors are especially helpful because they can supply enough for several cancer patients with just one donation. Depending on a donor’s platelet count, they may be able to donate as frequently as once a week, far more often than they’d be able to donate blood.

Baby Thomas is currently in the pediatric oncology ward at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital. His immune system is nearly nonexistent, so only his parents and medical staff are allowed in the room with him. Harner has spent every night with her son in the hospital, and her husband, Arch, alternates between taking care of their other children in Moscow and visiting the hospital.

Harner said they named Thomas for his dad’s grandfather. When he’s older, they’ll pick a verse from the Book of Thomas to decorate his room with, something the Harners do for all their children.

Spending the first months of her son’s life in the hospital wasn’t what Harner expected. When Thomas was first taken to the intensive care unit after birth, she and her husband thought that might be the end of their son’s life.

“None of it seems real,” she said.

But Thomas has shown encouraging signs. His bone marrow tests have shown the cancer isn’t spreading, and she’s hopeful he’ll be in remission soon after his initial chemo is complete.

Thomas’ first big smile was at one of his doctors, Harner said. He’s never stopped fighting and protests loudly when nurses try to take his blood pressure.

“He’s definitely a fighter. I think he’s got a great shot at beating this,” Harner said.