Beau Boushele
From the very beginning, Sherry and Mark Boushele knew the life of their fourth child, Beau, was in jeopardy. Sherry's blood is Rh negative, while Mark's is Rh positive. A blood test in Sherry's eighth week of pregnancy told them that the tiny fetus had inherited his father's Rh factor. Her immune system reacted as it would to any bacteria or other incompatible cells, creating antibodies to destroy the foreign invaders in her body and endangering the life of their child.
Until the mid-1980s, pregnant women like Sherry suffered the dual agonies of losing their babies and knowing that their own genetic makeup was the cause. Then bold, new procedures called Percutaneous Umbilical Blood Sampling (PUBS) and intravascular fetal transfusions became available and gave doctors the opportunity to transfuse blood from donors to fetuses still in the womb. As a result, babies that previously had no chance of survival were being born in good health.
The first two PUBS procedures that Sherry had didn't show a need for intervention. But, later tests confirmed that Sherry's own body was destroying her baby's blood cells, and only donated blood might save him.
Sherry's baby was given Rh negative blood from a blood donor through a needle in her abdomen. The blood would get the child safely through pregnancy, and about three months after birth the baby's body would replace the Rh negative blood with its own Rh positive blood type.
"It was a deep experience," adds Mark, "that people would give something so vital and give it so freely."
To all the people who donated their time, their skills, and their blood to save their infant son, Sherry and Mark feel the need to give back. Telling their story "doesn't seem like enough" to them, but it's a good way to begin.