{"id":476372,"date":"2026-06-14T05:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T05:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/476372\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T05:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T05:04:10","slug":"mum-who-once-donated-blood-saved-by-donors-after-near-fatal-bleed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/476372\/","title":{"rendered":"Mum who once donated blood saved by donors after near-fatal bleed"},"content":{"rendered":"

She recalls spending a painstaking 20 minutes to pull herself out of bed. \u201cThen I fainted and all hell broke loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LianaLiana knew something was seriously wrong 36 hours post-birth. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

Her husband Murt arrived soon after to find his wife being wheeled out for a CT scan. Passing their newborn son to a confused and worried Murt, Liana disappeared down the hall.<\/p>\n

The scan revealed a staggering 2.4 litres of blood was pooling inside her abdomen, with the cause of the bleed unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that wasn\u2019t good, but it wasn\u2019t till I googled it later that I realised losing that much blood is nearly fatal,\u201d shares Liana, who spoke to the Weekly about her ordeal for National Blood Donor Week.<\/p>\n

Liana was rushed into her second surgery in as many days, where the bleed was contained and drained. She received four units of donated red blood cells. Her first thought on waking was, \u201cPlease tell my husband I\u2019m okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LianaLiana and Murt. Photo \/ Tessa Burrows<\/p>\n

Through everything, Murt, 42, has been her rock. Liana was in her early 20s when he pulled up at 3am to the McDonald\u2019s drive-through where she worked and asked for her phone number.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe messaged me before he\u2019d left the car park,\u201d laughs Liana. \u201cWe had our first date a week later and after about a month, I moved in with him and had to quit my job because I was too sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liana was soon diagnosed with Crohn\u2019s disease<\/a>, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes long-term swelling, irritation and ulcers along the digestive tract.<\/p>\n

Trialling different medications, she also learned the disease would affect the couple starting a family. Liana was told natural birth wouldn\u2019t be an option for her because of the risk of tearing in a vaginal labour causing damage to Crohn\u2019s-affected tissue.<\/p>\n

She understood that a C-section was the only way<\/a>, but the news took a while to process as she\u2019d always imagined having home births and Murt had been vocal from their first date that he wanted a football team of kids one day.<\/p>\n

Seeing how blood donors had saved Liana\u2019s life has since inspired Murt to start donating. Explaining this commitment to Liana, he says, \u201cYou needed it and it only seems right that I give it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the New Zealand Blood Service, every 18 minutes someone in Aotearoa needs blood or blood products, yet only 4% of the eligible population are donors. As an O-negative type universal donor, Murt\u2019s contributions are incredibly helpful.<\/p>\n

Liana shares, \u201cAs soon as his stand-down period is over, Murt\u2019s booked in to donate again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LianaLiana with her children Cathail and Saoirse. Photo \/ Tessa Burrows<\/p>\n

Despite the health risks involved in growing their family, the couple decided to have one more child. Thankfully, there were no bleeding complications when their daughter was born three years after their son. Although, Liana laughs, once again her high pain tolerance contributed to more drama than expected.<\/p>\n

During a pregnancy check-up at around 37 weeks, it was discovered Liana was already in labour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought maybe it was just Braxton Hicks [practice contractions],\u201d laughs Liana. Instead, she was rushed in for a C-section before her real labour progressed further.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Liana talks openly with her children Cathail, seven, and Saoirse, four, about the role blood donors have played in their family\u2019s story. One day, she hopes they\u2019ll continue the tradition and become donors themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad I have donated because now I understand I\u2019ve been able to save somebody else\u2019s life in the same way mine was saved,\u201d enthuses Liana. \u201cMy family wouldn\u2019t be what it is now without donors. My daughter and I wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

National Blood Donor Week runs from June 8 to 14. Download the NZ Blood Service Donor app, visit nzblood.co.nz<\/a> or call 0800 448 325 to donate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She recalls spending a painstaking 20 minutes to pull herself out of bed. \u201cThen I fainted and all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[34262,74,15316,117024,4250,3595,2511,12781,4731,49479,50109,8127,6440,13245,1888,240026,134,2959,5511,8596,240025,89195,15399,2721,65795,5971,13631,111,139,69,6029,6858,49478,17162,19187,4062,23554,65259,9631,1361,37366,25444,1316,1299,6730],"class_list":["post-476372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-abdomen","tag-after","tag-birth","tag-bleed","tag-blood","tag-by","tag-child","tag-class","tag-days","tag-donated","tag-donors","tag-end","tag-ever","tag-expecting","tag-first","tag-halloran","tag-health","tag-high","tag-just","tag-keen","tag-liana","tag-lifesaving","tag-massive","tag-mum","tag-nearfatal","tag-need","tag-never","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-once","tag-pooling","tag-receiving","tag-saved","tag-scan","tag-school","tag-showed","tag-skip","tag-student","tag-that","tag-topup","tag-urgent","tag-when","tag-who","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}