Blood from a stranger saved the life of young Arrowtown boy

Kris and Pete Perkins are happy to see Bodhi, now 5, healthy after his life was saved by blood transfusions in October last year. Photo / Rhyva Van Onselen

Arrowtown’s Kris Perkins says she does not have the words to describe the enormous gratitude she has for the strangers who gave the blood that saved her young son’s life.

In early October last year, Perkins and her husband, Pete, started noticing some “weird” things with their then 4-year-old boy, Bodhi.

“He was experiencing a lot of leg pain,” Perkins recalled.

“He’d always struggled with growing pains at night but the pain started dripping into the daytime and it was affecting his temperament.

“He’s usually really climby and dancy but one night he came into our bedroom and he couldn’t even get up on our bed.

“His preschool teachers had also noticed he was falling over a bit more.”

The next day, a Monday, Perkins attempted to have Bodhi seen by a doctor in Queenstown before the pair were due to drive to Christchurch to see family during the school holidays.

“I couldn’t get him in to see a doctor in Queenstown so decided to go to Christchurch and get him in to see someone there,” Perkins said.

“We stopped in Cromwell to get a coffee, he got out of the car and literally looked like Bambi trying to walk.

“We did the drive — he wasn’t very happy, complaining of the leg pain, and by the time we got to Christchurch he was screaming in pain, so I got him straight to Christchurch Hospital.”

There he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder where the immune system starts to attack the peripheral nervous system and can cause paralysis and, in some instances, death.

Bodhi received four transfusions, one each night over four nights, of a substance derived from blood plasma — privigen intravenous immunoglobin — that prevented any further damage to his nervous system.

“Not only did the transfusions stop things in their tracks, Bodhi went from being paralysed to being able to walk the next day,” Perkins said.

“It was freaking amazing, it was so quick.”

Bodhi, who celebrated his fifth birthday last Thursday, was “totally fine” except for one of his feet pointing a little more inward than it used to when he walked and ran. The family is seeing an osteopath to treat this.

Today is the start of National Blood Donor Week, which runs until Sunday, and the New Zealand Blood Service (NZBS) is asking New Zealanders to “Find their Why” and become a donor.

The NZBS needs 40,000 new donors over the next year so New Zealand can remain self-reliant in terms of blood and blood products.

“Every 18 minutes, someone in New Zealand requires blood or blood products and meeting this demand wouldn’t be possible without all our donors,” the NZBS said.

It wanted to break down the barriers and dispel the myths around blood donation to encourage more of the eligible population to roll up their sleeves and join its “whānau of lifesavers”.

Perkins only had to look at her healthy son playing happily for her “why” and urged everyone that could to donate their blood.

“There are literally no words I can articulate for the amount of gratitude I have for every single one of Bodhi’s donors, who took one hour out of their day, an hour that can save up to three lives. Every single person out there is someone’s Bodhi.”