|
| COMPANY WEBSITE | EDITORIAL | PAST ISSUES |
(Santa Fe Springs) For the last 6 years Coaster has partnered with the local chapter of the Red Cross to help “give the gift of life.” On January 29, 2010, the blood mobile came to Coaster. From 9:00am to 3:00pm employees could donate blood at work while on the clock. Over the last year Coaster employee donations have become essential to the local efforts. Coaster employees have an unusually large population of O+ blood type donors which is also the universal donor type. Great job Coaster. How Blood Gets to a Patient Who Needs it... While you are donating, several small test tubes of your blood are collected at the same time. Those test tubes, your blood donation, and your donor record are labeled with a bar code to keep track of them. The donation is stored in iced coolers and taken to a Red Cross center. At the Red Cross center, the bar codes are scanned into a computer database, and the blood is spun in centrifuges to separate the transfusable components – red cells, platelets, and plasma. The white blood cells are removed so that they won't provoke an immune system reaction in the recipient patient's body. Meanwhile, the test tubes are sent to one of five Red Cross National Testing Laboratories where a dozen tests are performed on each unit of donated blood to check the blood type and test for infectious diseases. The test results are sent back electronically to the manufacturing center within 24 hours. If a test result is positive, the unit is discarded and the donor is notified. Test results are confidential and are only shared with the donor, except as may be required by law. The units deemed safe for transfusion are labeled and stored. The red cells are stored in refrigerators at 6ºC for up to 42 days; the platelets are stored at room temperature in agitators for up to five days, and the plasma is frozen and stored in freezers for up to one year. From there, the blood is available to be shipped to hospitals 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You start this lifesaving process every time you perform the simple, generous act of donating blood to the Red Cross. It's a process that helps hospital patients every day here in Southern California.. Interesting Blood Donation Fact What is the most common blood type?
|
|
 |
