Sara Espindola
One cold winter day, athletic, soccer-loving 12-year-old Sara Espindola woke up unable to move her left side.
By the time she reached the hospital, it was too late to intervene with surgery. Now, 21, Sara credits her medical team, her loving family, her faith and platelets for her recovery from what was a stroke.
“I am so grateful to those who donated their platelets so that I could get well,” she said.
Platelets are tiny blood cells that form clots and stop bleeding. For millions of Americans, they are essential to surviving and fighting cancer, chronic diseases, and traumatic injuries. Every 15 seconds someone needs platelets.
“In sixth grade, I had been diagnosed with Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura—ITP—two months before my stroke,” Sara recalled. The disease can occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks platelets. In children, it may follow a viral infection.
“ITP also involves the inability to clot correctly, which meant my stroke was a hemorrhagic stroke because I bled in my brain since I could not clot,” Sara said. “In my case that clotting resulted in the blood supply to part of the brain being interrupted.”
She spent two full days in intensive care and another 12 days in the hospital. Her hospital stay was followed by months of out-patient care.
Complicating matters was Sara’s need for surgery. She explained that with ITP, the immune system treats platelets as foreign and destroys them.
“The spleen is responsible for removing these damaged platelets and therefore removal of the spleen can help to keep more platelets circulating in the body,” added Sara, who is now earning a nursing degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
It took a year and half to fully recover, Sara managed to keep up with her classmates and graduate on time---she also continues to be very active.
“In high school I played soccer and ran track and cross country, and at the university, I play soccer, volleyball, flag football and basketball,” she said.
Sara’s love for sports means she is also a sports medicine assistant for the university football team, so she administers first aid at home games and sometimes travels with the team. Sara speaks multiple languages so she also tutors university students in French and Spanish (in addition to quantitative reasoning and statistics). A native of Mexico City, Sara moved at age 6 to Chesterfield, MO, when her father, an engineer, got a job with a U.S. company.
Despite strong math and linguistic skills, Sara at age 12 decided she wanted to become a nurse. That desire grew stronger when recently her younger brother, at age 14, was diagnosed with leukemia – he also needed platelets.
“The nurses at St. Louis Children’s Hospital were angels to my brother as they were to me,” she said. “They always were there with a smile and were extremely caring.”
 Sara’s ultimate goal would be to work as a nurse in pediatric hematology or oncology.
 “I tell my doctor I am going to work with him someday,” she said.
That’s the same doctor, who when Sara was very sick, was asked if she’d ever be able to play soccer again. He said “Sure, you will be able to play soccer.”
The 32nd Annual Mizzou Spring Greek Week Blood Drive is Apr. 3-5 at MizzouRec on the South Courts. All donors will receive a free special-edition Mizzou Spring Greek Week Blood Drive T-shirt, while supplies last, and can enjoy food from local businesses around campus in the canteen after their donation. To make an appointment go , download the Red Cross Blood Donor app, or call 1-800-RED CROSS and enter/mention sponsor code MIZZOU!
