Around this time three years ago, Moorestown’s Victoria Palko was in the hospital fighting for her life when a case of pneumonia took a turn for the worse and caused her lungs to collapse. Victoria was taking in multiple units of blood daily when her family decided to host a blood drive to help not only their daughter, but others who also required blood treatments.
Victoria is now a healthy 22-year-old, on her way to graduating from college on time, having miraculously only missed one semester. However, her family has continued to host a blood drive and give back.
The Moorestown community and beyond are invited to the Third Annual Community Blood Drive in honor of Victoria Palko, being held on Jan. 23 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at The Evergreens, located at 309 Bridgeboro Road. There will be raffles and door prizes for those who attend. All blood types are welcome.
“It’s amazing. People still ask about Victoria and everyone is so happy. This is an amazing town we live in. There is so much support and caring, it’s unbelievable … (We’d like) people to come out and donate and help us give back what we were given,” Laurie, Victoria’s mom, said.
In December 2013, Victoria was taking her finals at the University of Delaware when she wasn’t feeling well and was taken to the ER by her roommate. Diagnosed with a mild case of pneumonia, she went home, missing only one final.
Just when it seemed like she was getting better, Laurie walked into her room on a Saturday morning to find Victoria unresponsive. She called 911 and Victoria was rushed to Mt. Holly Virtua Hospital.
Her body had created an empyema in her lung the size of a water bottle, which burst and collapsed her lungs, causing them to completely shut down and Victoria to go into septic shock.
Doctors were able to get her to respond with some epinephrine, and stabilized her enough to move her to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. She was put on a heart and lung machine for 21 days, having multiple surgeries to get her lungs working again.
“(The doctors) equated it to a lightning strike. It was typical pneumonia that created the empyema, and there was an issue that caused that to burst … She needed a miracle. She needed to respond. A lot of crazy stuff happened, and with some amazing doctors, they tried ideas that worked,” Laurie said.
In what Laurie called “a miracle,” Victoria made a complete turn around. She went from a ventilator, to a tracheostomy tube, then inpatient rehab and outpatient rehab. She was in the hospital for two months and in outpatient treatment for two months, but missed just one semester of college.
“She had to re-learn to walk, dress herself, get out of bed, pretty much everything because her muscles had atrophied … She wasn’t back on her feet until about summer time … Her lungs will never be 100 percent, but they are amazingly in the 90th percentile. I can’t believe how much she recovered,” Laurie said.
During her time at the hospital, Victoria had used more than 100 units of blood, which constitutes three people per unit of blood and even more when doctors used immunoglobulin therapy. Laurie described this as an antibody cocktail from more than 1,000 people, which helps to boost the immune system.
Laurie realized how much blood was needed by the hospitals for patients and decided to host a blood drive while Victoria was in the hospital and continued it last year.
“So many people wanted to do something to help when she was sick, and there is only so much people can do, so I came up with the (blood drive) idea. It seemed like every hour another bag of blood, so I thought let’s replenish this for people who might need it in the future,” Laurie said.
For the first blood drive, staff from the hospital and people from all over New Jersey came to donate. Last year, there wasn’t as much, so Laurie is hoping for numbers to spike once again at this year’s blood drive.
“We’re trying to hype it up a lot this year and get the numbers up again. We can’t stress how much we feel we owe everyone … We want others to have the same opportunity to recover like she did and make that available for people,” Laurie said.
People can sign up for an appointment online at www.tinyurl.com/vicpalko or just show up to donate. Those donating are recommended to be heavier than 120 pounds, bring a photo ID, hydrate and eat a good meal beforehand.
Blood will go toward the Community Blood Council of New Jersey, a non-profit organization that collects and provides blood support for the state.
Celebrating her 22nd birthday on Monday, Victoria is now completely healthy. She has continued her education at the University of Delaware, where she studies fashion merchandising, making up classes in the winter and summer. She recently accomplished one of her dreams, studying abroad, as she was studying in Paris during fashion week. Through all of her hard work, she will be graduating on time this May.
“The whole journey has been unbelievable. She has wanted to study abroad for years, and is working fashion week and making up her two final classes to be caught up. It’s been amazing,” Laurie said.
For those who want to learn more, go to Facebook and type in the search “Well Wishes for Victoria Palko.”
