A West Michigan woman who recovered from COVID-19 is donating her blood for research and saving the lives of others severely infected by the disease. While studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain, which at the time was assigned a Level 3 COVID-19 non-essential travel warning, 20-year old Grace Biermacher, a junior at University of Michigan, began feeling sick on March 8th.
“I could not tell the difference between the common cold with a fever.”
She experienced night chills and a couple low-energy days in bed.
“There’s a lot of people who experience the dry cough, but mine was not dry. It was very congested and I was blowing my nose constantly.”
Biermacher describes her symptoms as mild and felt fine by March 11th then returned to the U.S. on the 12th. Three days later she tested positive for COVID-19 at Spectrum Health.
“My plasma, because I tested positive and I’ve now recovered from COVID-19, it has the antibody for the virus in it.”
Last week, the East Grand Rapids resident donated her antibody-rich plasma at Versiti Blood Center of Michigan
“Researchers are going to use it to work on treatment for patients who are ill with COVID-19 and it’s been done in the past with Ebola and SARS and other similar viruses that have impacted the world in the past. And I just feel super grateful that I’m able to be a part of this.”
Also, up to three COVID-19 seriously ill patients can receive Beirmacher’s transfused plasma as a treatment in their recovery.
I’m Patrick Center.