Blog of Bloodworks Northwest



Jaclyn Schuenzel: When Donating Blood Comes Full Circle

When teacher and improv performer Jaclyn Schuenzel gave birth to her daughter Zelda in June 2020, life with her husband Marc Guy and the new baby was joyous. But just one month later, the longtime blood donor found out why those donations are so important.

Just standing in her kitchen and without any warning, she started hemorrhaging blood and struggled to call out to her husband for help before collapsing and passing out. Marc administered CPR until an ambulance arrived and whisked her to Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland. WA.

Jaclyn had suffered a ruptured uterine artery, one of the biggest blood vessels in the body, so her blood loss was severe and her condition, tenuous. Doctors immediately transfused three units of blood, and they started a fourth, they rushed her into surgery. Luckily, a specialist was on hand to find and repair the bleed in the operating room in the span of just one hour. But she still needed 10 units of blood on the operating table.

“If I had not had that blood, I would not have made it.”

-Jaclyn Schuenzel
Jaclyn Schuenzel performs improv at Unexpected Productions Improv in Seattle.

Happily reunited with her daughter and husband, Jaclyn has recovered fully and is grateful. Her husband and many of her family and friends immediately made blood donation appointments in gratitude for all the help Jaclyn received, and in October 2020, her employer Unexpected Productions Improv (UPI), a local theatre in the heart of Pike Place Market, hosted a virtual blood drive to highlight the need for donations in our community.

It was midnight and Jacklyn Schuenzel was simply standing in her kitchen like any other night when she suddenly needed vast quantities of blood to live. It can happen in an instant. And for that reason, our community’s need for blood never stops. Please make an appointment to donate blood today. Someone, somewhere, is counting on you.

January 28, 2022 4:12PM

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