Catching a cold or flu can be miserable for anyone, but catching
a nasty bug can mean the difference between life and death for
Brenda Garner. She suffers from a condition called Common
Variable Immune Deficiency, a genetic disorder that affects her
antibodies, making it difficult to fight off infection.
Brenda says, “What happens to me, is I can get like a cold or I
can start having a sinus infection or an ear infection and within
about six hours it goes into bronchitis and within another 6 hours
it goes into pneumonia and then it goes into blood infection.”
Doctors diagnosed Brenda with the condition about three years
ago, but they believe she’s had it since childhood.
She says 9-11 has been called several times due to complications
from illness and the paramedics were unable to find a pulse or get
a blood pressure reading. They were able to revive her and now
she relies on immune globulin injections, made up of plasma from
blood donors, to keep her protein levels, B-cells and immune system
up.
When Brenda greeted me at her home in Sanford she was giving
herself an immune globulin infusion, but you could barely
tell. She carries the immune globulin pump in a pack around
her waist. The medication is delivered via four needles she
strategically places on her body. On this day, the needles
were in her upper arm. Brenda says she needs to infuse herself
at least once a week and she can always tell when it’s time for her
next infusion because she starts to feel weak.
As her Bassett Hound, Oliver, howled from the couch Brenda
showed me the boxes of medication she needs just to stay
healthy.
She says she is grateful to blood donors who get on the Big Red
Bus, especially those who donate blood at her church, Westview
Baptist Church in Sanford.
Bill Coffman is the Pastor of Westview Baptist Church and he
says, “We, naturally are interested in helping people, and all
through history in the Bible the Lord Jesus was interested in
helping people with their health and those that were sick so we
feel it fits into our pattern of worship and ministry.”
Brenda says, “To me, the people who give blood are like heroes
because they saved my life and I just can’t believe how wonderful
it is. God’s given something so easy for me to do and I’d
love to go on the bus and tell people thank you because you saved
my life.” Watch
Video 
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