London man credits plasma donation to his COVID survival

LONDON, Ky. (WTVQ) – People who have recovered from the coronavirus might have the chance to save another victim’s life. Doctors have been urging survivors to donate their blood plasma.

Clifford Thompson nearly lost his battle with coronavirus until he received a plasma donation.

He and his wife Donna live in London and they never thought coronavirus would hit so close to home.

On April 5, Clifford started feeling symptoms of the coronavirus and went to the emergency room. He was put on a ventilator on April 7, flown to UK on April 9 where doctors gave him only a 1% survival rate. The hospital process was long a tough for Donna, “he was on the artificial lungs for nine days he was on the vent for 18 days and was discharged home in 36 days and went up there with a 1% survival rate.”

Clifford was so sick he was one of the first to receive plasma at UK. Plasma is filled with antibodies that help your body battle viruses. It’s those antibodies that may have saved Thompson’s life.

“And they started seeing improvement in his lung capacity and so from then on it was everyday it was a little bit of an improvement a little bit of an improvement and truly I don’t think he would have survived.”

Even now after being out of the hospital for a couple of month’s recovery is slow. Clifford says, “I can’t function like I did before and I’m still having a lot of issues with my lungs ”

So Clifford says it’s so important people follow guidelines to keep others safe, adding, “boy it really makes me angry when you go out and you see these people going into stores and stuff and they don’t have masks or anything like that they put so many people at risk.”

But if you can donate plasma, it may also save a life Donna describes what happen to them, “we count that to the miracle of the plasma therapy”