Frank Papola donates
plasma.
The American Red Cross, in collaboration with the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) asks those who have fully recovered from
COVID-19 to donate their plasma. This antibody-rich product is a
potentially lifesaving treatment for critically ill COVID-19
patients.
“This need is going to be continual and persistent for quite
some time. There are projections that as a health care system and
as a global community, we may perhaps be dealing with this virus
and its effects for 18 months to two years. Since the virus in new
to us, our understanding of its behavior is limited. I want to
encourage everyone if they think they qualify to continue to sign
up and get the word out that we are still actively looking for
donors,” said Dr. Baia Lasky, American Red Cross Regional Medical
Director.
This effort has presented an “interesting challenge” for the
nonprofit, which supplies about 40 percent of the nation’s blood
and provides supports after disasters, because it has to wait for
people to recover to collect their convalescent plasma, while more
and more people are getting ill.
“We have collected and shipped probably close to 1,700 units
of convalescent plasma (nationally); 44 of those units have come
from Georgia donors,” Dr. Lasky said in early May.
Frank Papola, a recovered COVID-19 patient from DeKalb County,
answered the call to donate his plasma at the American Red Cross
Blood Donation Center in Atlanta.
“It meant the world to me,” Papola said. “Going into the
hospital, I left my wife at the door. With my condition, I just
didn’t know how it was going to turn out. Fortunately, it turned
out great.”
Married with two daughters and five grandchildren, Papola is a
retired carpenter by trade who worked as a homebuilder for many
years. On March 17, he felt fine when he went to bed.
“March 18, I woke up and had the classic signs – chills,
very high fever, cough, tight chest. I knew I was very sick, so I
called my health care provider and he said go to the hospital,”
Papola said.
Papola stayed in Piedmont Hospital for about a week.“It was a
pretty scary event, but thank God I pulled through it,” Papola
said.
Initially hospitals were helping identify potential donors, but
that proved to be a manual and non-scalable process. So, the Red
Cross turned to the community. But, until recently, only a small
percentage of individuals, like Papola, met FDA’s eligibility
criteria, of verified COVID-19 diagnosis, as well as being symptom
free for at least 28 days prior to donation (or at least 14 days
with a negative COVID-19 test result).
“As of April 27, the Red Cross has initiated antibody testing
– so we no longer require that initial positive test. It’s
really opened up the donor pool for us,” Dr. Lasky said.
So those who were symptomatic or received presumptive diagnosis
from their physician, can now prequalify as a convalescent plasma
donor, since the Red Cross can verify on the backend through its
own antibody testing. Note the Red Cross is not offering COVID-19
antibody testing for the general public nor to its routine blood,
platelet or plasma donors.
Once Papola became aware of the convalescent plasma program, he
signed up to help.
“There’s a lot of people doing a lot of good and I wanted to
do something. So, how simple is it to sit in a chair and donate my
plasma. It’s basically like giving blood. To know that I could
possibly be helping someone survive this awful disease. I don’t
think anything was more rewarding, other than having my kids and
grandkids,†Papola said.
At the end of May, Papola donated his convalescent plasma for a
second time. He urges others to follow his lead.
“Donate and not just plasma, donate blood. There’s a real
need. Donations are down, from what I was told. They make it very
easy. It takes just about an hour of your time. There was no after
effective. Just go and do it,†Papola said.
Learn more at RedCrossBlood.org/plasma4covid.
The post
Paying it Forward: Recovered COVID-19 patient donates plasma to Red
Cross appeared first on Atlanta INtown Paper.
