MILWAUKEE -- After announcing on April 2 they would begin collecting plasma from patients who have recovered from the coronavirus in an effort to help those critically ill with COVID-19, officials with Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin on Thursday, April 16 offered an update on the plasma transfusions, and called for more donations from recovered patients.
As of Thursday, Versiti officials said eight plasma donations resulted in transfusions to 14 patients, noting that "more plasma is needed from recovered COVID-19 patients in order to fulfill the high volume of requests being received by Versiti from local hospitals."
Potential donors are encouraged to call a special hotline to schedule: 1-866-702-HOPE (866-702-4673) or CLICK HERE.
“We are encouraged by the requests coming in for this product,” said Versiti Chief Medical Officer Thomas Abshire, M.D. in a news release Thursday. “It represents hope for patients battling the disease, and serves as a measure of encouragement that the plasma might be a positive treatment, along with other therapies, until the delivery of a vaccine.”
The plasma treatment transfers the antibodies that the recovered patient created, into critically ill patients currently receiving care. The plasma donations take 30-40 minutes.
Versiti was among the first in the nation to begin these plasma collections.
On April 6 in Milwaukee, Dave Lal became the first such plasma donor for the blood center.
"This is part of a study to look at, one, does it help, and reaffirm that it helps, and how much it helps, and target which patients have the most benefit from it," said Lal.