Blood disorders — the blanket term for conditions like anemia, hemophilia, blood clots and cancers — affect millions of people each year, but awareness among the public is generally pretty low.
But Los Angeles-based writer Kevin McDevitt hopes to change that with his hilarious (and educating) parody of Taylor Swift’s smash hit “Bad Blood.”
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McDevitt’s video “Good Blood” is based on his experience going through a 2014 bone marrow transplant to treat his aplastic anemia and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). The transplant came after years of lethargy and a series of scary incidents that sent him in for testing.
“I knew something was wrong when I was getting very fatigued and even developing carpal tunnel-like symptoms,” McDevitt told Yahoo Health. He figured it was burnout and took some time off to rest, but that only worked for so long. “My doctor thought it might be a stomach issue, as my blood test results at the time were normal.” His condition continued to deteriorate, and he developed large bruises — a common sign of low platelets.
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The main focus of the video isn’t about him, though: Its purpose is to get people to register with BeTheMatch.org, a service that pairs people in need with those willing to donate bone marrow. McDevitt is lucky that his sister, Megan, was a match, but others aren’t so fortunate
“My friend Shahonna (from the video) has been looking for a match for 20 years,” he told Yahoo Health. “It’s a cold world sometimes; you definitely learn that at the transplant ward. But an organization like Be The Match represents hope for the many patients who aren’t lucky enough to have a sibling match.”
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The lyrics he created and performed with his wife are timed pretty amazingly to the original song and, paired with some fancy cinematography and editing, make his video efforts as entertaining as they are educating. “Spend three to five minutes on BeTheMatch.org’s form, then they mail you the swab, you swab and mail it back. My video shows it in about seven seconds — that’s how simple it is,” he said.
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