DALLAS — A blood drive at the American Red Cross in Dallas is the last place Kenisha Harding ever expected to be.
“No,” Harding said. “Never thought about it. Was never on my radar.”
Harding shouldn’t even be here. She really shouldn’t be here.
“They told my husband if I didn’t have a hysterectomy, I probably wouldn’t make it,” said Harding.
Twenty-three years ago, soon after having her first child, Harding found out she would never have another.
After delivery, she was bleeding internally. By the time it was caught, Harding had bled for hours.
To save her, doctors used 12 units of blood. The human body only holds 10.
“I was bleeding out as fast as it was going in,” Harding said.
Doctors removed her uterus and stopped the bleeding, but without blood supplied by donors, Harding would have died.
“I hate to think of all the things I would’ve missed,” Harding said.
That’s why, even though Harding had never donated blood before, she started.
Today, she donates as often as she’s able.
However, she still felt like she could do more, so not long after her brush with death, Harding got a job at the Red Cross.
“Because they saved my life,” she said. “And I want to be a part of something that helps save those other moms that maybe were close like I was.”
As finance director, Harding is now part of the team tasked with finding donors especially during an emergency blood shortage, like the one facing the Red Cross right now.
It’s a job she plans to keep for the rest of her career.
“If it wasn’t for all those people I wouldn’t have the 23 years so far that I’ve had,” she said. “To give somebody else that opportunity, that’s pretty fabulous.”
A pretty good indication she’s right where she needs to be.
“I'm here. I wouldn’t be otherwise if people didn’t donate blood,” she said.
NOTE: The following video was uploaded in Jan. 2024.