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Frances Kycek is passionate about donating blood.

In 1979 at the age of 29 after delivering her third child without any problems, she began hemorrhaging.

At Naeve Hospital for the birth, she remembers hearing the nurses and others saying she had lost too much blood, and she started getting colder and colder — and weaker and weaker.

They did not have any of her blood type — A positive — on hand, and she recalls two sheriff’s deputies coming from the Twin Cities through a blizzard to deliver blood that matched her blood type.

“Those poor men, they risked their lives coming down to Albert Lea to save my life,” Kycek said.

She recalled her doctor asking her if she had anything she wanted to say before he started the surgery, and she remembers just saying to him, “All I want to do is come back home and be a mommy again to my three babies.”

Luckily the deputies arrived in time, the surgery went well and she lives this day to tell the story.

She said her husband at the time, Jim Swenson, was beside her in the recovery room when she woke up.

“He was scared I was going to die,” she said.

She spent five days in the hospital until she was released, and they returned home to Waseca, where they lived. She now lives in Albert Lea.

Some time passed after she came home and was busy raising her children when one day something clicked after seeing commercials on television that highlighted that people were dying because there was not an ample blood supply.

“I thought, I want to do something,” she said.

In 1983 she decided she wanted to start donating blood and went as faithfully as she could around her family’s schedule.

She has been honored to share her story with first responders in the Twin Cities about how her life was saved because of blood donations.

She now donates as much as she can based on her schedule and when it’s allowed. Donors typically wait at least 2 1/2 months between each donation.

Kycek will be donating her 92nd pint of blood at the end of this month.

“I think that is another one of God’s gifts back to me for going through that,” she said. “He is using me as a vessel to continue to help people survive like I did. I love it, what I’m doing,” she said.

She encourages those around her to donate blood when possible and hopes to persuade those who may be leery to give it a try.

 

Upcoming blood drives

• Jan. 19: United Methodist Church, 702 Highway 69 S., 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Jan. 22: Northbridge Mall, 2510 Bridge Ave., noon to 6 p.m.

• Jan. 31: Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office, 411 S. Broadway, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.