CLARKSTON, Mich. – Eight-year-old Liv O’Connell wants to be a doctor when she grows up.
She already knows far more about medicine than most children.
“When I go to the hospital to get blood, I watch and I know how to do it, like, all the stuff,” explained Liv.
Liv had her first blood transfusion right after she was born. She’s needed frequent transfusions ever since.
“She doesn’t make red blood cells very well. They don’t mature very well. So she’s chronically anemic, which means that she needs blood transfusions approximately every three weeks,” said Tim O’Connell, Liv’s father.
Liv’s parents eventually learned that she has a rare genetic blood disorder called Diamond-Blackfan anemia. To date, she’s received 109 blood transfusions.
“When I’m not getting blood, I’m tired, I have headaches,” said Liv.
But when Liv gets a transfusion, she’s able to do all of the activities she enjoys.
“She amazes us all the time,” said Liv’s mother Megan O’Connell. “Most people, if they felt the way that she did, would not be able to do cheerleading, dance, tumbling, school.”
“This condition, you wouldn’t recognize it in her,” said Tim O’Connell. “She just conducts herself like any other kid.”
The whole family is constantly aware that it’s all possible only because of the generous blood donors.
“We wouldn’t have her without them, so they mean everything to us,” said Megan O’Connell. “It’s hard, you have to rely on strangers to keep your child alive. So we are very appreciative.”
When blood shortages happen, they take notice.
“It’s so scary. I mean, you always see like, ‘donors needed,’ ‘blood shortages,’ and so we’re always wondering, you know, how that could affect her?” said Megan O’Connell.
“She needs blood every three weeks or she can’t live. So that’s the only option she has is relying on donors to give blood so that she can continue to grow and be a kid and be an adult someday,” said Tim O’Connell.
In turn, the O’Connells have been inspired to give back, by joining forces with a teacher from their elementary school, whose child once battled cancer.
“As a parent, you feel very helpless, and you want to do something as well. So together, we decided to start throwing the blood drives. That’s when we partnered with the Red Cross,” explained Megan O’Connell.
To date, their blood drives have collected 288 pints of blood, helping save 864 lives.
“We don’t have enough gratitude to give, and we don’t have enough blood that we can give to essentially replace what she takes every three weeks,” said Tim O’Connell. “These blood drives and the Red Cross are really the only way we can give back to the community of donors out there.”
Liv’s courage has personally inspired many people to get over their fear of donating.
“They meet Liv. They hear her story, and they’re like, ‘Okay, I’ll try, you know, I’ll try to donate.” And then they see that it’s really, it’s not that big of a deal, you know, it takes maybe half hour, 20 minutes of their lives, and they can literally save another person," said Megan O’Connell.
“The people who donate, I really appreciate that, because they’re being kind to everybody like me,” said Liv.
Related: Donate blood in January for chance to win trip for 2 to Super Bowl LIX.