Blood Transfusions Critically Important for Eastern Kentucky Family
Nov. 18, 2024
To know what Sheryl Cable-Burke’s closest family members have gone through is to understand the everyday need for blood.
Over the last 40 years, three of the most important men in her life have needed blood: her father, her husband and her father-in law, all for different reasons.
The impact of blood transfusions for those around Sheryl started with her father, Charlie Cable Jr., in 1985. Charlie required 33 pints of blood for open-heart surgery.
The Cables were from Pike County in Eastern Kentucky, but at that time in 1985, a surgery of that magnitude required the expertise of medical officials at Baptist Hospital in Lexington.
“We weren’t blessed enough to have a (blood) center in Pike County at the time,” Sheryl said. “One of the requests from the hospital was that all the blood be replaced. We were fortunate enough to have people drive down from here and donate until all the blood was replaced.”
The need for blood hit home again when Sheryl’s husband, Greg Burke, was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver in 2017. Where it was nonalcoholic, the condition wasn’t easily treatable, and Greg required an organ transplant, which often require blood transfusions.
Greg had to wait five and a half years, but in October 2022, he received his gift of life. The average liver transplant requires two to three units of blood, but Greg needed 54 units – 22 of which were whole blood, 28 were plasma, two were platelets and two were cryoprecipitate.
“Everything is now fantastic with him,” Sheryl said. “All blood work is great. Liver numbers are perfect.”
And now Sheryl’s father-in-law, Herl Burke, is battling leukemia.
Blood transfusions are critically important for leukemia patients for several reasons. Leukemia can crowd out healthy blood cells in bone marrow, leading to low blood cell counts. Internal bleeding is common. Plus, chemotherapy treatments, while vital to kill the leukemic cells, also damages and kills healthy blood cells.
A quarter of the blood supply goes to patients battling cancer.
“He (Herl) was given three months to live but he’s still going strong,” Sheryl said. “I know the blood and platelets are helping him.”
One in four people will need a blood transfusion in their lifetime for a myriad of reasons. That Sheryl’s immediate family has experienced three common causes has motivated her to donate consistently. She recently hit the five-gallon mark with Kentucky Blood Center, the equivalent of 40 donations.
“I know what it’s meant to my family, and I hope to be a light to some other family or some help to some other family that needs it.”
