![]() I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be able to give back so others can receive what we did…a life of new adventures. The 4 or 5 hours it takes for me to get to the plasma centre, donate and get back home is minor in comparison to the benefits we’ve received from others willing to give their time and plasma in order to produce lifesaving medications. Though not weekly anymore, given my being back at work full-time and living outside of the city, I try to donate at minimum once or twice a month and have continued to do so for the last six years since my son has been in remission. The first plasma donation can take between two and two and a half hours. It takes only a few minutes longer than donating blood but can have a profound impact. Donating plasma takes longer than donating blood due to thorough health screening requirements and the process of separating the plasma from blood. After his transplant, my son once again benefited from plasma-derived medication and my commitment to continue donating solidified, even once we were home. During a plasma-only donation, blood is drawn from one arm and sent through a high-tech machine that collects your plasma and then safely and comfortably returns your red cells and platelets back to you, along with some saline. As long as my son was medically stable, I would take a couple of hours in the day to go donate plasma every week. Important Note : Please read the following document prior to beginning the online SAHH questionnaire. Show your CSL Pass to center staff upon arrival. Complete the questionnaire independently. ![]() Having benefited so greatly from years of plasma-derived medications, I went to see if I was a candidate for donating plasma. How Online Screening Works ( powered by Donor360) Complete the questionnaire on the day of your donation. While grabbing something to eat in the hospital cafeteria one day, I noticed an ad for plasma donation only 15 minutes from where we were. We did however, have bi-weekly hospital treatment of IVIG in our local hospital that would help keep these blood levels in the safe zone thereby allowing him to live life somewhat normally.Īfter 8 years of this, he finally was diagnosed and put on an oral medication that worked to keep his immune system more stable without needing to go to the hospital so regularly.įast forward 12 years and my son was now fighting Leukemia with Cancer in his marrow, his blood and his cerebral spinal fluid, which ended up requiring a bone marrow transplant.įor 6 months he and I lived in hospital 150km from home while he fought the disease. It was discovered that he had almost no platelets to stop the bleeding during surgery (despite having had a normal pre-op appointment) and after transfusions to stabilize him, was treated with IVIG, a plasma-derived medication.Īfter endless testing, we weren’t any closer to a diagnosis, other than he had some kind of an auto-immune response that seemed to think his platelets as well as his red and white blood cells weren’t necessary, so his immune system sought out to destroy them. He was undergoing a routine tonsillectomy when something went very wrong. Whole blood donation takes less time-under 30 minutes-and donors donate less frequently-no more than once in eight weeks. The programs may fit into a donor's life differently at various times in the donor's life, and are equally important in helping to fulfill a vital medical need.My involvement with plasma and plasma-derived medications dates back to 1990 when my oldest son was 4 years old. Typically it takes between one and three hours to donate source plasma, and plasma can be donated twice within a seven day period. Plasma donation requires a commitment both in the amount of time for each donation and frequency of donation.Whole blood donations most often are used locally in hospitals for transfusions required during surgery or other medical treatment. Source plasma and recovered plasma are used to produce therapies that treat people with rare, chronic diseases and disorders such as primary immunodeficiency, hemophilia and a genetic lung disease, as well as in the treatment of trauma, burns and shock. Source plasma donation and blood donation are critically important activities that contribute to saving lives. ![]() The plasma protein therapeutics industry supports volunteerism donation in all of its forms.What's important is that we encourage all forms of donation from those who are eligible, so that they may contribute life-saving blood and source plasma to those in need. who are eligible to donate blood or source plasma actually donate. Only a small number of people living in the U.S.
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