‘We have a small window’: Urgent search for blood donors to save Adelaide mother

Three weeks ago, after she had dropped off her two sons at school, Amira noticed something was not right.

“Like every morning, she prepared the kids to school,” her husband, Ahmed Elhayes, said.

“Then she called me from the school, she was feeling pain in the chest, back and shoulder so we went to the emergency [department].”

Doctors investigating why the 37-year-old Port Adelaide woman felt unwell found a major problem.

“They found she has the aortic valve in a severely leaking condition, and she needs to replace it as soon as possible,” Mr Elhayes said. 

Amira, who is awaiting open heart surgery at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, is expected to need at least 20 bags of blood before, during and after the procedure.

“The blood group is A+ which is fine but the problem with Amira’s case … [is] her body started to develop some antibodies,” Mr Elhayes said.

“[They] make it very difficult to find blood to perfectly match Amira’s blood.”

Donors respond to the cause

Australian Red Cross Lifeblood launched an urgent nationwide search for blood donors with the rare blood type to help Amira make it through the surgery safely.  

“We’re trying to encourage everyone in the community, nationally and internationally, to just give blood,” Mr Elhayes said. 

“Until we receive the required quantity, there is no surgery.

Nicola Cowley decided to donate blood in Adelaide today after hearing about the campaign.

“I felt it was important if I could contribute to someone else’s wellbeing, especially seeing as it was only a couple of blood types,” she said.

“They said the more people the better, so I thought I’d try.” 

Bryan Moseley-Greatwich had planned to only donate his plasma but decided to donate blood after he was asked whether he wanted to help Amira. 

“If I have the blood type she needs, I’d happily donate as much as I can to help for the cause for Amira,” he said. 

Red Cross Lifeblood’s Andrew Chadwick said the public’s response to helping Amira had been “amazing”. 

“The Australian general public is so generous, you put a call out like this and everybody just comes running, it’s so heartwarming,” he said. 

“We set up a special team called ‘Donate for Amira’ and so far we’ve had about 1,000 people join that team and about 540 people have donated.” 

Mr Chadwick said Amira’s blood was so rare that just one in every 10,000 people may be compatible. 

He said while they had found some matches, Amira would still need more. 

Mr Elhayes thanked those who had already donated. 

“Their contributions is highly appreciated by us as a family,” he said. 

Lifeblood urged people with blood types O or A to book a donation on their website, and said all donations would be tested for suitability.