In 2013, I delivered my first child after an intense labor. I lost 3 liters of blood and was beginning organ failure, I was told that I had the "right to die" if I did not agree to a blood transfusion. With a newborn baby girl on my chest, my twin on the phone, & my husband at my bedside, I agreed.
When the blood transfusion began, I had an adverse reaction...something we were told was normal. It wasn't until I discovered that I was pregnant with our second child in 2016, after the routine blood tests, that I had antigen kell.
You may be asking what antigen kell is.
Defined by the NCBI, Antigen Kell is as follows:
The Kell blood group system is complex and contains many antigens that are highly immunogenic. These antigens are the third most potent, after those of the ABO and Rh blood groups, at triggering an immune reaction.Antibodies that target Kell antigens can cause transfusion reactions and hemolytic disease of the newborn (HDN). In the case of HDN, ABO and Rh incompatibility are more common causes. However, disease caused by maternal anti-ABO tends to be mild, and disease caused by maternal anti-Rh can largely be prevented. The infrequent cases of HDN caused by Kell immunization tend to result in severe fetal anemia because maternal anti-Kell target fetal red blood cell (RBC) precursors, suppressing the fetal production of RBCs.
Sounds scary, right? Imagine being newly pregnant after having a difficult first pregnancy and labor and discovering that the blood transfusion that saved your life has the potential to kill your unborn baby at any time in your womb for the next 9 months.
Now, I have maternal kell, obviously. My husband is kell negative but still, while our son was in my womb he had the possibility of being killed by cardiac arrest, organ failure, etc because of my disorder. I cannot begin to describe the pain that I endured mentally and emotionally, as well as physically for those 9 months. From having an amnio to see if our unborn son had the kell transfer into his blood system, to NST, to various apts to make sure the kell did not transfer at any point; it was hell.
We are extremely fortunate to have had so many doctors and nurses on staff when I delivered (a scheduled delivery) so that my son and I could receive optimal care. I can never thank our hospital enough. I can never thank the kell specialist enough who drove over an hour to make sure he was there to test our son after delivery to make sure he was okay.
Our son is the healthiest child born with kell that is known to the specialist. He has no blood disorder, no disorder, etc. I cried tears of joy and I still look at him and thank God & medical professionals every day for helping me deliver a healthy boy into this world.
I hope that this blog sheds light on living with kell after diagnosis and a successful kell pregnancy. To also see my life as a working mama, full-time employee, student, wife, etc. I want to share my story as it happens and help others in the process.
