UMass Memorial Medical Center says its seeing encouraging results after performing its first plasma transfusion for a severely ill COVID-19 patient at the Worcester hospital.
“After hours of transfusion, the patient has dramatically improved overall and is now starting to wean off of the ventilator after having required near maximal settings to oxygenate him prior to the plasma transfusion,” the hospital said in a statement Tuesday.
The procedure comes after the medical center put out a call to residents in central Massachusetts last week, asking those who have recently recovered after testing positive for coronavirus to consider signing up to potentially become a convalescent plasma donor.
“People who have fully recovered from COVID-19 have antibodies in their plasma that can attack the virus,” the plasma donor registry webpage says. “This convalescent plasma is being evaluated as treatment for patients with serious or immediately life-threatening COVID-19 infections, or those judged by a healthcare provider to be at high risk of progression to severe or life-threatening disease.”
The hospital is also asking health care providers who have COVID-19 patients in recovery who may be able to donate plasma to contact the program.
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