Two days back (on 01-March-2011), I was in Apollo speciality hospital donating platelets. Father of one of my colleagues was affected with blood cancer. And he was in need of platelets for his treatment. Myself along with two other colleagues volunteered to donate the platelets.
Till then I was not aware of this platelet donation. The thing I knew was, platelets are something in blood that prevents us from bleeding by making the blood to clot. Also I haven't done blood donation before. And this was my first time. So little bit nervous on to know how things are going to happen.
So what are platelets?
Platelets are tiny cells found in our blood. Our blood is made up of the following:
Who needs platelets?
Patients who's platelet count is below 20,000/cu.mm of blood with clinical evidence of bleeding needs platelets.
How platelet is collected from a donor?
I shall say how platelets were collected from my blood. This may give a clear picture.
I was connected to a machine. It was just by a pin-prick into one of my forearm veins. This machine took my blood, separated and collected platelets from my blood, and finally sent back the blood (blood minus platelets, i.e. RBC+WBC+plasma) into my body.
I experienced that the entire procedure is safe. There is no risk at all. This is because they use a sterile, plastic, disposable, single use set for each donor. The blood travels only through the disposable tubing set and it never touches the machine at any time. So that it is sure that the blood would never come into contact with the previous donor's blood.
The entire procedure took around 78 minutes for me to donate the platelets of 200 ml. Before collecting the platelets from me, the hospital conducted the tests on my blood for the following:
The tests for above were conducted on a day (28-Feb-2011) before I donated the blood. On clearing these tests, I was asked to come for donating the blood on the next day morning. I was asked by them to have a good breakfast before I come to hospital for donating the platelets.
After the donation of platelets, I felt happy about me for I could help someone on need.
If you wish to donate platelets you can contact - 24347288 - Apollo Speciality Hospital Blood Bank, No. 320, Anna Salai, Nandanam, Chennai - 600 0035.
Till then I was not aware of this platelet donation. The thing I knew was, platelets are something in blood that prevents us from bleeding by making the blood to clot. Also I haven't done blood donation before. And this was my first time. So little bit nervous on to know how things are going to happen.
So what are platelets?
Platelets are tiny cells found in our blood. Our blood is made up of the following:
- Red blood cells (RBC)
- helps to transport oxygen to various parts of our body
- White blood cells (WBC)
- helps to fight against infections
- Platelets
- helps blood to clot which prevents bleeding
- Plasma
- a yellow liquid that contains proteins and coagulation factors
Who needs platelets?
Patients who's platelet count is below 20,000/cu.mm of blood with clinical evidence of bleeding needs platelets.
How platelet is collected from a donor?
I shall say how platelets were collected from my blood. This may give a clear picture.
I was connected to a machine. It was just by a pin-prick into one of my forearm veins. This machine took my blood, separated and collected platelets from my blood, and finally sent back the blood (blood minus platelets, i.e. RBC+WBC+plasma) into my body.
I experienced that the entire procedure is safe. There is no risk at all. This is because they use a sterile, plastic, disposable, single use set for each donor. The blood travels only through the disposable tubing set and it never touches the machine at any time. So that it is sure that the blood would never come into contact with the previous donor's blood.
The entire procedure took around 78 minutes for me to donate the platelets of 200 ml. Before collecting the platelets from me, the hospital conducted the tests on my blood for the following:
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis C
- HIV
- VDRL
The tests for above were conducted on a day (28-Feb-2011) before I donated the blood. On clearing these tests, I was asked to come for donating the blood on the next day morning. I was asked by them to have a good breakfast before I come to hospital for donating the platelets.
After the donation of platelets, I felt happy about me for I could help someone on need.
If you wish to donate platelets you can contact - 24347288 - Apollo Speciality Hospital Blood Bank, No. 320, Anna Salai, Nandanam, Chennai - 600 0035.
I would suggest to check this site
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tnmmu.ac.in/deptrans1.htm
Personally i have donated 3 times in this blood bank.. They have state of art facilities for the blood capture,separation,maintainence..