Plasma donations help save Winnipeg woman's life

Supplied image of Jodi Pauls.

One Winnipeg woman is urging Manitobans to donate plasma as these donations are what helped save her life.

Jodi Pauls, 38, is running through life and not looking back.

"Today I feel great. I’m just so happy to be here and every day is a great day,” she said.

But like a marathon, life for this mother of three has sometimes been difficult, challenging, and presented obstacles.

In 2005, at just 18 years old, Jodi was diagnosed with TTP, a life-threatening, rare blood disorder that causes small blood clots in blood vessels throughout the body.

Those clots restrict the flow of blood to vital organs.

To save her life, doctors gave Jodi plasma therapy.

"They put in a central line catheter into my neck and would take out my bad plasma and exchange it with healthy donor plasma,” she said.

For 18 years, Jodi was healthy. She got married, gave birth to three boys, and was enjoying life as a busy mom on the go.

That all changed in July of 2023, when she noticed some troubling, all too familiar symptoms, including bruising, bleeding, and fatigue.

This time it took 30 days in hospital to save her life.

"I had 18 treatments over the course of those 30 days. Each time about 15 bags of donor plasma, so roughly about 250 bags of donor plasma just to keep me alive,” she said.

Being away from her three sons took its toll on Jodi.

Although, if you ask her sister-in-law Hannah Pauls, those boys are also what she believes gave Jodi the strength to get through it.

"Oh, my goodness, it's her driving force. She loves her kids,” Hannah said.

Bouncing back from this latest relapse is something Jodi and her family also know wouldn't have been possible without hundreds of plasma and blood donors.

"Without the plasma, the mortality rate is 90 per cent so it's the only thing that's kept me alive and here and being able to celebrate my kids,” Jodi said.

Having another shot at life is something Jodi doesn't take lightly.

Since being discharged from the hospital, she's made fitness a priority, attending her local YMCA five days a week.

"I just hope not to relapse again and live to be an old lady and watch my kids grow,” she said.

The need for plasma right now is more than four times what is currently being collected, and while you can only donate blood every 56 days for men and 84 days for women, plasma can be donated as frequently as every seven days.