What's the difference between 'whole blood,' platelets and double red cells? South Texas Blood and Tissue helps us demystify blood donation.
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With the clock ticking on how long each donation lasts from extraction to transfusion, lives depend on them working quickly and diligently. Here’s an inside look at what happens after you get up from the chair sporting a cotton ball armband.Blood drives take place all over San Antonio — often at high schools, colleges and businesses — but the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center also has nine donation sites collecting blood year-round.
Donors can also give platelets, the tiny components in blood that help with clotting. Platelets are most often used by cancer patients and others facing life-threatening illnesses and injuries. Platelet donation typically takes about three hours. The manufacturing associate takes each bag of whole blood, gives it a unique barcode, scans it into the center’s computer system and puts it into a special cup to be centrifuged to be broken down into its components.
This separates the blood into plasma, platelets and red blood cells, with the latter being the most dense and sinking to the bottom of the bag. The platelets, on the other hand, are immediately taken to a separate lab across the hall where they will be tested for bacterial growth over the course of 48 hours. Once cleared, the platelets are ready to be used for transfusions, said Taika Gutierrez, a lead tech in the platelet lab. Platelets are only viable for about seven days, compared to red blood cells’ 42 days, Salcido noted.
Once the blood components have been separated and labeled, they can be sent to the center’s packaging room. Here, they’re put into cardboard boxes lined with styrofoam and insulated with dry ice packets for safe transport. If a sample comes back positive for one of these, both the donor and the local public health authority are notified, Jones added. All samples, whether positive or negative for diseases, are disposed of through the biohazard disposal process.
Often patients with certain types of cancers or sickle cell anemia have developed antibodies against specific types of transfusions, Ruiz said.
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