Savage couple hosting virtual blood drive to honor son

Prior Lake American

Savage residents Ali and Kyle Drake are hosting a virtual blood drive to raise 126 units of donated blood to honor their son, Callan Drake, who died at 126 days old in November from a congenital heart defect.

Ali and Kyle, who are both graduates of Prior Lake High School, discovered Callan had hypoplastic left heart syndrome during the 20-week ultrasound. He was born on June 29, 2017 and four days later, underwent open-heart surgery.

“He was in the hospital, then, for 126 days and he had a lot of ups and downs that whole time,” Ali said. “He only got to meet his siblings in person three times because they weren’t allowed to come visit because he was always so sick.”

With hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the structures on the left side of a baby’s heart do not form correctly during a pregnancy. This means the left side of the heart is unable to properly pump oxygen-rich blood to the body, putting stress on the other parts of the heart, according to the Center for Disease Control’s website.

“He would have needed at least two more heart surgeries before he was 8 years old,” Ali said. “As an adult, it was very likely he would have needed a heart transplant.”

On Nov. 2, 2017, Callan died due to complications from the heart defect.

“His birthday is coming up on June 29, so we were trying to think of something positive to do to honor him,” Ali said. “He needed so much blood and plasma and platelets while he was in the hospital.”

Before June 29, the Drakes are hoping to raise 126 units of pledged, donated blood in honor of their son. So far, they have 68 confirmed donations.

“It’s just so important to us that something positive comes out of this because you look back and you just think, ‘why?’” Ali said. “We know there’s a lot of people out there who are willing to donate and we are really hoping to reach our goal before his birthday.”

The American Red Cross is currently doing a "missing types" blood campaign to raise awareness that all blood types are needed and to "help ensure blood is never missing from hospital shelves," according to a news release. For the past four years, new blood donors have declined by 80,000 each year.

The couple said they want to try and do a blood drive on Callan’s birthday every year.

“We wanted to try and do an actual blood drive this year but we didn’t give the blood centers enough notice,” Ali said. “Now that we know how long it takes ... we’ll probably try and schedule a blood drive on his birthday every year.”

Those wanting to donate can go to sleevesup.redcrossblood.org/campaign/callan-richard-drake-chd-hlhs-angel to pledge a donation. Though the campaign is through the Red Cross, people can donate through any drive or service and email Ali at donate4callan@gmail.com to confirm the donation.