Ira Carroll was a fighter long before he was born. Ira was born to Caitlyn and Tech. Sgt. Thomas Carroll in November 2019 while Thomas served as a student at Keesler Air Force Base. The Carroll’s learned that Ira’s kidneys were not developing or functioning correctly due to his having Polycystic kidney disease – a genetic disease that causes cysts to grow inside the kidneys.
Born a week early, Ira spent months in the Medical Intensive Care Unit. During his early years, he required multiple surgeries and had to undergo daily dialysis treatments.
Caitlyn and Tommy bore the challenges of nightly dressing changes and dialysis for more than a year and a half.
Then the call came. On May 22, 2021, they received the best news of their lives. Their son was receiving a kidney.
“It was both bad and good news,” Thomas said.
“My grief isn’t a drop in the bucket for the family who lost their child,” Thomas wrote in a post. “It will never compare. But I hope the family knows we don’t take it for granted. We are very protective of the gifts that we receive. That we are thankful every second, every during every 3-year-old tantrum, that we will forever give back in honor of that angel.”
Following his kidney surgery, baby Ira needed multiple blood transfusions.
Keesler Blood Donor Center came to the rescue, providing Ira with much-needed blood. The Center collects about 3K blood units annually that are manufactured and dispersed into approximately 5.3K blood products.
Ira is now a happy and energetic four-year-old kid, Thomas said.
“Ira is doing great. Creating the “The Incredible Ira” Facebook page to chronicle his journey has been therapeutic. It is important for people to be blood donors and seriously consider being an organ donor – you never know whose life you could save.” Thomas concluded.
Ira had lived up to his motto: “Be Big & Brave”.
The Center regularly holds blood drives for events such as this.
“On average, blood has a shelf life between 35-42 days, so we need a constant resupply each week to help medical units sustain an inventory to support medical operations,” said Maj. Ryan P. Comes, Blood Donor Center officer in charge. “Our second priority is blood support for Military Treatment Facilities globally. The blood we collect at Keesler goes to medical outfits in U.S. Central Command, U.S. Africa Command, U.S. European Command, U.S. European Command, and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Once we have met those requirements, we try to augment our transfusion service department at Keesler to mitigate local costs. Additionally, blood products are constantly in demand, so having a DoD resource to support military blood requirements instead of relying on civilian sources helps keep operations in motion,” Comes said.
The Keesler Blood Donor Center is located at 301 Fisher St. Its mission is to collect, process, and ship blood donation units and products to support the Armed Services Blood Program. Donors can call the Center at (228) 376-6100 to schedule an appointment to donate or drop by the Center at 111 G. Street, next to the Post Office and behind the tennis courts.
| Date Taken: | 06.25.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.25.2024 09:36 |
| Story ID: | 474762 |
| Location: | BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 27 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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