May 23, 2020
The Gazette recently spoke with Wendy Stuart Kaplan, a lifelong New Yorker, activist, entertainer, author of She’s The Last Model Standing, host of the YouTube series Pandemic Cooking, and most recently, a COVID-19 survivor and plasma donor.
Like thousands of her fellow New Yorkers, Wendy found her work and social life turned upside down by the pandemic. She’d normally ride the subway several times a day for work and spend her evenings in packed nightclubs downtown. Since COVID-19 her world is mainly a corner of her couch and a telephone. She’s made the best of it by separating the good COVID-19 information from the mis-information and then sharing it with her extensive social media following and by producing a comedic YouTube cooking show in her kitchen.
Because the official advisories on COVID-19 have been inconsistent and often contradictory as well as at odds with her direct experience, Wendy’s point of view is enlightening.
Back in March, Wendy, her husband, and their adult daughter all developed sinus symptoms and were assured by a teledoc that they didn’t have the virus. Next came shortness of breath and the loss of taste and smell. At this point they were told they did have it and should isolate, which they’d been doing already. By then the hospitals were becoming overwhelmed and most New Yorkers were trying to avoid them at all costs and doctors, for their part, were happy to see patients by phone rather than in the office.
“Why did all three of us come down with the same symptoms? We’re falling asleep, my nose is stuffed up. Meanwhile, everything tastes like wood. Or cardboard. That was the giveaway. I called the 800 number, ‘I can’t smell, I can’t taste.’ But no – ‘you’re not coughing, so you don’t have COVID.” This was in mid March when everything here started shutting down.
She also remembers having a ‘COVID headache’ and says that the diminished senses of smell and taste still persist two months later. Even though she’s recovered, this lingering symptom suggests possible nerve damage – although, as with so much about COVID-19, ‘they just don’t know.’ So, if you’ve been following along with the general diagnostic advice you see that their presentation wasn’t exactly typical: nobody had a cough or sore throat and their temps never went much above normal. They did have loss of taste and smell and shortness of breath, but their original symptom, sinus congestion, still isn’t on the CDC list.
So, faced with so many unknowns, Wendy delved into researching everything she could get a hold of on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19. That’s how she learned of a procedure called convalescent plasma donation. A recovered patient can donate their blood’s plasma which contains the virus fighting antibodies that helped them to recover. This is then transfused into a patient who needs help with their recovery. Wendy was told that her antibody laden plasma donation could help three patients and that she can do another donation in a few weeks. Being a long time activist for AIDS, LGBTQ and women’s rights, animals and the environment, Wendy was eager to be part of the COVID solution.
She called her doc who set her up with a lab and they did an assessment by phone. Her doc then had to order an antibody test (Editor: this was around mid April and the tests have become more widely available, and reliable, since then). Next she had the test and got the results 4 days later: positive for antibodies.
“The next step was, ‘great! I’ve got these beautiful antibodies and I want to help save somebody and make something positive come out of this shit storm.” Then, through her own research, Wendy learned that Mt Sinai and Columbia were collecting donor plasma. But she made an appointment at NY Blood Center after seeing a pop up ad online and reaching out to them. She got a call back from a woman in Rhode Island who set up an appointment on the Upper East Side for Wendy to donate her plasma.
“There were a lot of technicians. You go into a room and sit down, it’s almost like a dentist office. They insert a catheter and connect you to a machine for about an hour.” The machine then separates the antibody rich plasma from the solid blood components which are then returned back into the donor’s body.
Wendy’s daughter, Kyle, wondered if a donor would thus become more susceptible to reinfection after reducing the number of antibodies in their own circulatory system by donating. Answer: “they don’t know.”
The staff informed Wendy her donor plasma would help a patient (or perhaps more than one patient) in Harrisburg, PA. They told Wendy they would call her in a couple of weeks to see if she wants to donate plasma again. She’d like to tell our readers that, “if you think you may have had COVID-19, get the test. Get a blood test. If you had it and you have the antibodies, you can donate plasma and help somebody who needs it.”
Parting shot: “They just don’t know. There is no they. It’s up to you.”
When informed that the Gazette has named her a Hero of the Pandemic for her generous plasma donation and for setting a powerful example, she replied modestly, “oh, it’s nothing.” But it’s not nothing. So to Wendy and to all the other plasma donors out there whose names we don’t know, thank you. You’re all our Heroes of the Pandemic and we salute you!
