I just know that there is another type of blood donation, called apheresis, when only the plaquettes(is that the English spelling?) are removed. The rest of the blood is send back to the donor. It takes more time(longer process), but the donor recovers more quicly than in a normal blood donation and can donate more often (don’t remember how often, certainly less than 50 days). Can someone give me more information about this type of donation?
Recently,(before the WTC incident) I read in a local newspaper they were paying people to donate plasma. Ok, I know plasma is the other component of blood which is not red blood cells or plaquetes. For what purpose is the plasma donated? How long does this process take? How often can one donate?
Plasma can be sold to pharmaceutical companies, which use it to make products used to treat hemophiliacs. It is not being transplanted directly into patients, which is why you can be paid for it (under most circumstances it is illegal in the US to sell any part of your body for transplant).
I have never given plasma so I don’t know exactly how long it takes, but it’s not a quick process. They have to draw your blood, seperate the plasma, and then pump the rest of the blood back into your body. I have heard that it’s a good idea to bring a book. Be prepared to wait a while, especially if you go towards the end of the month when people are hard up for cash.
[[Plasma can be sold to pharmaceutical companies, which use it to make products used to treat hemophiliacs. It is not being transplanted directly into patients, which is why you can be paid for it (under most circumstances it is illegal in the US to sell any part of your body for transplant).]]
The above only describes “for profit” plasma collection businesses. You are correct to say that they do not transfuse patients directly with products collected at those places. But if you give plasma at a Blood Center or Red Cross (who do not pay you), it is donated directly to patients who need it. It is particularly used for burn patients and organ transplant patients. I give plasma instead of whole blood because I recover much more quickly from this. It takes about an hour. They take the blood out, a machine separates out the plasma and returns the red blood cells (along with added fluids) back into the same arm. Also type AB is valuable because, unlike whole blood, this is the universal donor type for plasma. RH doesn’t matter.
If you give “platelets” you get a needle in both arms. I don’t know as much about that process or what the product is used for (I’m thinking cancer patients, mostly?), but it takes longer.
Not ‘plaquettes’ but ‘platelets’. Platelets are a clotting factor in blood and are continually replenished by healthy bodies. The Red Cross will accepts platelet donors every 2 weeks, up to 24 times per year.
Platelet transfusions are needed for treatment of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, patients with blood disorders such as aplastic anemia and leukemia, and patients undergoing bone marrow transplants.
Apheresis collects up to 8 times the platelets available from a single whole blood donation.
I commend all blood donors and would urge first-time donors to understand that it is not the WTC tragedies that have created a blood shortage. An acute shortage of whole blood and platelets has existed for several years. People are afraid of needles, afraid of AIDS, afraid of committing, afraid of the unknown.
It would be a fitting tribute to those innocents who have died from terrorism to establish a new habit of regularly donating blood. It takes 2 hours for apheresis, 1 hour for whole blood. That’s not much of an investment of time when you consider the return.
I have been a platelet donor since 1993. It takes about two hours total. A needle in both arm and hand is not required. The machine can draw and return through the same needle stick. That’s the way I do it. They prefer a two stick procedure, but I don’t care for it.
I’m told the same machine can be set to collect blood products other than platelets.
I can donate every three days if required. But I normally only donate once a month. If they need me, they call.
Most major hospitals can perform apheresis. As jcgmoi said, it’s not much of an investment.
The blood center I usually donate at told me they’d rather have my whole blood because I’m O Negative. O is the most common type, but most O’s are positive; only 8% of people are O-.
I was told that they use O- for the NICU unit, which gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I haven’t been able to donate for the current crisis. The first day they had 4 hour waits all around the area. Today my car broke down.
Hey, thanks for the information, and giving me the correct spelling of platelets.
So, the fastest way to donate blood is the standard blood donation, but the other types are more useful for specialized cases. Thanks, I’m thinking into donating either plasma or platelets since one can recover for them faster, and can donate more frequently.
I just thought I would add that when you donate a unit of blood it is centrifuged and separated into components so that one donation results in one unit of packed red blood cells, one unit of plasma, and one unit of platelets. The red cells and plasma are transfused as individual units but the platelets are pooled (at the hospital) with five other donor units to make what’s called a six-pack and transfused that way. That’s because there are fewer platelets in an individual donated unit of blood than there are in an apheresis unit.