Most area residents who give blood assume their donations will be used locally but they rarely meet the recipients of their generosity. That’s why Jim Davidson, president of Davidson Development, Inc., is grateful for the donors who provided the multiple units of blood and platelets he required during a liver transplant in June at the Mayo Clinic.
“Evidently during that time period, there were a total of three transplant surgeries requiring approximately 40 units of blood. I’m sure the other transplant recipients join me in thanking each of you who took the time and effort to give blood,” he said.
Davidson is, literally, a changed man.
“I don’t look much like the old Jim,” he said. “I’ve lost 50 pounds, for starters, and more to come. But I feel great. I’m a lucky man.”
Earlier this year and before Davidson’s problem was known, the real estate company had formed a partnership with the Blood Center of the St. Johns-The Blood Alliance and has hosted ongoing blood drives to assist with area shortages.
“Little did we know when we first started hosting blood drives several years ago that Jim would one day face a life-or-death situation requiring transfusions,” said Sherry Davidson, president of Davidson Realty and vice president of Davidson Development. “We got involved because it seemed like the right thing to do. Now, we know first-hand just how precious those donations are.”
The ongoing blood drives are held on the first Saturday of every other month at Davidson Realty.
Davidson also asks area residents to consider becoming organ donors. He has personally been an organ donor since the program’s inception, never realizing that he would eventually be in need of one himself.
“That organ teamed with your gift of blood gave me a new chance at life,” he said. “Thanks to you, the organ donor, his or her family, and to the wonderful doctors and staff at Mayo Clinic, I am doing well and expect a full recovery in the very near future.”