Show appreciation for frontline workers and learn more about plasma donations at drive-by event Monday night at Miles Park in Indio
Last week we covered the story of the two sisters, Janet Santibanez who was battling COVID-19 and Maribel, a nurse at Loma Linda Medical Center that ended up taking care of her sister.
Thanks to plasma donated from recovered coronavirus patients she is now in stable condition but still fighting the virus.
News Channel 3 spoke with a friend of the family who is putting on an event tomorrow night to thank frontline workers and inspire people to donate plasma.
“I myself am a nurse and I work at a local COVID-19 testing site,” Elisa Leyva told News Channel 3.
Leyva is a part of a group of local nurses trying to bring attention to the need for plasma donations.
“We are bringing awareness of the importance of convalescent plasma donations,” she said.
The convalescent plasma that comes from recovered coronavirus patients can help those who are currently infected. There’s an extremely short supply.
Plasma donations helped Janet Santibanez who is now in stable condition after being in the ICU at Loma Linda Medical Center.
“I know that there’s a lot of people coming out positive and some are very sick so I want to continue bringing awareness to that and continue to follow the guidelines of wearing your mask and keeping social distance,” Leyva said.
Leyva is also showing support for other frontline medical workers in their own battle every day against COVID-19.
She tells us how you can safely show appreciation towards frontline heroes during a drive-by event in Indio on Monday night.
“They don’t even have to get out of their car," she said. "They can just pass by, thank them, honk, flash their lights,” she added.
It starts at 7:30 p.m. and ends at 8:30 p.m. at Miles Park.
She said she’ll also be passing out flyers for more information on plasma donations.
“When this whole pandemic started we were thanking the nurses and doctors for all of their hard work and I think it’s important also to thank them still because they’re still taking care of patients that are critical and we just want to say thanks for your hard work and we appreciate you,” Leyva said.
If you would like to donate your blood plasma visit LifeStream Blood Bank’s website here: https://www.lstream.org/covidplasma/ or call: (760) 777-8844 or (909) 386-6837
