By Josh Egbert, American Red Cross of Colorado and Wyoming, Public Affairs
From the moment Cooper Steinhauser was born, he was a fighter. His mom, Haley, was on a quick business trip to Denver when, at just 25 weeks pregnant, he made his grand entrance into the world weighing only 1 pound, 15 ounces. He immediately stole the hearts of the doctors and nurses in the NICU at Denver Health. During his time on earth, Cooper endured a lot, including three surgeries and multiple blood transfusions.
“Cooper was a beneficiary of 13 blood transfusions throughout with 82 days of life,” said his mom Haley. “I also received a blood transfusion after I gave birth to Cooper. Our family is incredibly grateful to those donors who provided the blood for both Cooper and I.”
Cooper passed away on May 11, 2022 in the arms of his parents. Through their grief, Haley and her husband Edward created the Cooper Steinhauser Foundation as a way to honor their precious baby boy.
“Being Cooper’s parents is the honor of our lives and it is truly the best work,” said Haley. “This is how we parent Cooper now that he’s no longer with us is through our foundation and so to be able to have all of people give blood in honor of Cooper, the amount of lives we’re saving today is so wonderful and that Cooper’s work lives on beyond him.”
Haley and Edward traveled from their home in California back to Denver in July to host the Cooper Strong Blood Drive at the same hospital that cared for Cooper.
“This was just a really great opportunity for us to come back to Denver Health, where Cooper was born, and to get them started on blood drives again,” explained Haley. “We’re really, really honored that they were able to allow us to do this.”
Denver Health partnered with the American Red Cross of Colorado to host the drive. Janine Shepherd, Transfusion Services Supervisor for Denver Health, says the partnership has a big impact on the community.
“Having the ability to partner with the Red Cross is fabulous. Denver Health is such a “for the community process,” and so now we’re collecting from the community for the community so it becomes even better,” said Janine.
The Red Cross launched blood collection in Colorado for the very first time in April. Since then, we’ve partnered with numerous organizations, including Denver Health, to host drives.
“There are so many things that the Red Cross does in general, but for us specifically, we have a large need for blood products and having them here locally is huge,” said Janine. “The more we have the local support for the hospitals in the area, the better.”
For Haley and Edward, the partnership means the world to them.
“Red Cross is the unsung hero,” said Haley. “The work that they do to take blood from people, which is a very challenging job to have, is really incredible. They are gentle, they are kind, they talk you through it and in all the blood drives that we’ve done, we’ve never met a bad person, never ever met an unhappy person. Everyone knows that they are doing the work of heroes and we desperately need all of that. We need more of the Red Cross people in our lives every day.”
Thank you Denver Health for your partnership! If you or you company would like to host or sponsor a blood drive, visit redcrossblood.org.