Blood donation takes personal turn for longtime donor Aaron and son

Detective Aaron Whelchel of the Waco Police Department is a longtime blood donor. He contributes for the good of the community and, he said, never expected to personally know any of the patients helped by Carter BloodCare donors.

Yet an experience uncomfortably close to home changed his perspective.
In July 2015, his then 7-year-old son was riding his bicycle on a cul-de-sac. A distracted teen driver began backing out of a driveway across the street and ran over the boy, pinning him under the vehicle.
Not realizing the something he’d hit was actually a someone, the teen shifted the vehicle into drive and drove off the trapped 7-year-old.
“To this day, we don’t know if that helped or actually made things worse,” Aaron said.
His son was airlifted to a children’s hospital in Temple and doctors began working on his many injuries: a broken left femur, a deep laceration across his spine, multiple skull fractures, concussion, damage to his lungs, and a degloving of half his scalp, with the skin torn and hanging from the skull, exposing the bare bone.
Following initial surgeries, “About the second or third day we were there, we noticed he was lethargic, pale as a ghost and really in an unconscious state,” Aaron recalled.
Medical tests revealed his son’s blood level was dangerously low. A transfusion was immediately ordered.
“I asked the nurse how long before we would know if it helped and she said, ‘Within minutes.’ As the units began going into his arm, we literally could see his color returning. Within maybe 10 – 15 minutes of the blood transfusion beginning, we began to see him move around and wake up,” Aaron said.
His son would spend nine days in the children’s hospital, followed by several surgeries and months of rehab learning to walk again.
“After a long road, he recovered, thanks to great medics, nurses, doctors and the good Lord,” said Aaron. “But he would not have lived without blood transfusions.”
Anonymous donors made a specific difference for Aaron’s family.
“Some random person was going about their day before this happened, probably saw a blood drive going on and figured, ‘Hey, let me swing in real quick’ and probably never gave it much thought after that,” Aaron said.
“How do you ever pay that debt back?” he added. “That person took 30 minutes out of their day to donate blood, not knowing how much of an impact it would have for someone else.”
You can help local patients just as donors helped Aaron’s son. Please donate this week at your neighborhood Carter BloodCare donor center or mobile blood drive.
And, if you have ever received blood or platelets, your transfusion patient experience can save lives by motivating others to donate. Please Tell Us Your Story here.