Plasma recipient, donor meet (virtually) after successfully recovering from COVID

On Tuesday, South Carolina's first convalescent plasma recipient met the woman who she says saved her life.

Columbia, S.C. (WOLO) — On Tuesday, South Carolina’s first convalescent plasma recipient met the woman who she says saved her life.

Lisa Hardin, of Columbia, received Harriet Whitaker’s plasma. Because of the transfusion, she was able to recover from COVID after being hospitalized fighting the disease.

“I continued to just struggle to get my air in. You just felt like you were breathing in through a straw,” said Hardin.

Hardin was hospitalized on Good Friday after struggling to fight the coronavirus. Her doctor recommended a plasma transfusion to get the antibodies from a recovered patient. That Sunday, she received the good news.

“On Easter Sunday, he walked into my room and he said ‘we have a donor for you.’ That was the best news, I can’t even tell you, my heart just filled with hope. And he said ‘and she’s from Chattanooga, Tennessee.’ And I said, ‘my husband’s from Tennessee!’” said Hardin.

“I’m just so happy to know that it helped you the way that it did,” said Whitaker.

Whitaker and Hardin met for the first time Tuesday, virtually.

“When I got your antibodies, I looked up at the bag, and it was just a bag of gold,” said Hardin.

“It’s just hard to describe what it feels like to know that you saved somebody’s life doing something that to me seems so simple, it just seems so easy to do. And I’m just so glad that I’m getting to meet you,” said Whitaker.

Hardin says once the transfusion started, she began to feel better.

“They gave it to me and through the night I fell asleep. And when I woke up, I realized I had been asleep. And that’s something I hadn’t been doing for nights and nights and nights on end,” said Hardin.

Three days later, Hardin was released from the hospital.

“I can’t tell you, I can’t thank you enough, because you did give the gift of life by sharing your immunity with me. I will be forever grateful,” says Hardin. “You changed my life. And I know that it saved my life. And I just want to thank you, and I’m going to be your friend forever.”

Hardin says as soon as she’s able, she’s going to donate her plasma to help other patients battling COVID-19.

If you’d like to learn more about donating plasma, click here.