This just in from Vladimir at the Go Fund Me site:

Just got off the phone with Father Matthew once more, and have a bit of an update! Matushka Anna’s condition was, in fact, a condition known as placenta percreta, which is much more insidious and threatening. Anna required 31 units of blood, which is an amazing amount, but she is now recovering. That brings me to the next request! I’m calling on our friends to pitch in on that as well. Anna is O Positive, but the Red Cross does arrange for equivalency swap outs on donations. This of us who served in the military are fairly aware of how that works; I still have my Red Cross gallon donor card. Any donations of blood received which are in excess of the required amount we have to replace are, as I understand it, credited to some extent towards the hospital bill. I’m not sure how that works in the areas in which you live, but I’ve found the Red Cross to be pretty cooperative. The hospital which is the direct recipient is Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, and it would be for the benefit of Anna Harrington. Here’s their website if you would like to check it out.

I would appreciate it if you are one of our blood donors, that you would update us on this page so that others can see how much progress we’ve made. I do however underscore, there is no such thing as donating too much blood!

Anna will be subjected to a wide battery of tests today, and we’ll keep you posted. The next update will hopefully have more information on Baby Irene.

Suffice it to say that the hospital staff has commented on both Matushka Anna and Baby Irene that this has been nothing short of miraculous.

Thanks be to God,

and in XC

Vladimir (Vova) Saemmler-Hindrichs

Baton Rouge area readers, please go to OLOL and donate if you can. Julie did it before we left town for vacation. They turned me down as a donor because of my chronic mono. Thirty-one units of blood is a massive amount. She very nearly bled to death, sounds like. I remember last week, they were anticipating significant bleeding during the operation — placenta accreta is when the placenta grows through the uterine wall, and establishes “roots” (blood vessels) throughout the abdomen — so they projected needing four to six units of blood.

It took 31!

Miracle. God bless those surgeons and nurses and all the doctors.

If you haven’t made a financial donation yet, please consider it. The Harringtons have health insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange, but heaven knows what kind of expenses they are going to face by the time it’s all over. Baby Irene has only one eye, and one nostril, and will need many surgeries.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, friends, for your prayers and generosity!

UPDATE: I posted this photo above because Father Matthew already posted it and others on his Facebook feed.

UPDATE.2: A new photo of Baby Irene. Please remember her and her mother, both in the ICU, in your prayers: