Sankalp's First Platelet Apheresis

The Universe at times conspires in such strange and beautiful ways that it leaves the man wondering in amazement. Precisely at the time of countdown to the completion of 4 years of Sankalp, we received our very first Apheresis request which actually converted into a donation. This request was an unusualone. A person has lost both his kidneys and now required blood. The doctor had sent them with a request to find blood immediately. Struggling and searching, they ended up coming to M S Ramaiah Memorial Hospital. Here they got the Sankalp contact. Apheresis is the process of extraction of a particular component of blood from the donor. First blood is drawn. Then it is centrifuge. The platlets separate out and finally the remaining blood id sent back to the body. This entire process is repeated 7-8 times to be able to get one unit of platlets. The entire path that the blood travels from is a disposable kit (one time use). This ensures that the donor is absolutely safe. First our donor was taken for a comprehensive blood count test. Only once it was confirmed that with a haemoglobin count of 14.7 and platelet count of 238000 the donor was fit to donate did the proceedure start. As this was the first case of Apheresis for Sankalp, so Sankalp Volunteers were both nervous and exited at the same time. But the presence of skilled technicians made the process a cakewalk. On one hand we were counting minutes to the time when we started 4 years back and on the other front, platelets separated from blood were dropping into the collection bag drop-by-drop. Cycle after cycle the platlets were extracted. Calcium Sandoze tablets were given to the donor to ensure that there is minimum numbness that may be caused because of the citrate that flows into the body. Citrate flows in because it is the carrier of the anti-coagulants that have to be added to the blood when it comes out of the body. On one hand, Sankalp completed 4 years and on the other, the first Apheresis donation got over. What could be a better time to donate? what could be a better way to donate? Hope the patient benefits from this and comes back to his normal self soon. Cheers