Benefi ts of Blood and ….

Benefi ts of Blood and Plasma Donations

Donating blood and plasma is a great way to give back and save lives. The National Institutes of Health notes that blood and plasma donations are crucial for many reasons.

• Donated blood is often used during surgery, including heart surgeries, organ transplants and operations performed after emergencies.

• Blood donations help cancer patients. Certain types of cancer and cancer treatments prevent patients from forming their own platelets, making platelet donation vital for their survival.

• Blood donations help people with sickle cell disease. Patients with sickle cell disease may require multiple blood transfusions every year, and the blood used during such procedures needs to be very closely matched to the recipient’s blood type to avoid complications. Sickle cell disproportionately affects people who are Black or African American, and the most compatible matches tend to be people of the same ethnicity, making blood donated by members of the Black community particularly useful and necessary to help those with sickle cell disease.

• Plasma donations are pivotal for burn victims. Burn victims typically lose considerable amounts of blood, and the plasma donation experts note that severe burns commonly cause fluid to leak from blood vessels into other tissues. When diminished fluid volume within blood vessels is not addressed, a host of negative outcomes, including shock and potential organ failure can occur. The patients typically require plasma donations to replenish fluid volume and avoid further complications from severe burns.

Blood and plasma donation is a simple and selfless act that helps to save millions of lives.

—MetroCreativeConnection