South Florida artist Andy Periera was at a charity event in Fort Lauderdale where his works were on display in March. A medical expert told him they believe it’s where he and three others contracted COVID-19.
"Three days after the party I got a phone call from the health department in Broward County that someone tested positive at the party," Periera said. "I started getting fever.”
Soon Periera was in the hosptial and his time there caused him to produce a painting in honor of the medical professionals who got him back on his feet and able to go home.
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Now he's got a message for other COVID-19 survivors.
"If you are fortunate enough to survive, your body can start building antibodies,” Periera said.
Antibodies that doctors say may aid others who are currently battling the virus. Whatever Periera and those who fought it off have may make the difference for others.
Periera said he didn’t know where to donate his plasma at first.
OneBlood's Susan Forbes said they're making it easy to donate through oneblood.org.
"We have made it a one stop shop," Forbes said.
The organization is coordinating the effort to find COVID-19 survivors who want to donate. Forbes said so far they’ve collected 50 plasma units, and 300 other COVID-19 survivors have come forward saying they want to help.
“People had to literally had the virus to step forward to help and have recovered from it. We have a team of people behind the scenes working on this. As soon as people are qualified to donate on this, we are scheduling their donation immediately,” Forbes said.
Susan said on the website is a list of questions from the medical experts about your condition and that will determine if you can donate right now. Those donations are done at specific locations and you will be given a specific time for that.
