Donating Platelets For Your Child

March 23, 2013

Donating Platelets For Your Child

Shana occasionally needed transfusions of platelets which came from our local Red Cross blood bank. I found out that, as her mother, I could direct-donate my platelets to her, and I also discovered this was a great advantage to her.

If you want to do this, you will need to talk first with the oncology clinic staff as this will require some special coordinating between the clinic and the blood bank. The clinic has to make an educated guess as to when your child will need more platelets, then you have to make sure you donate only a couple of days prior to this, but you have to watch your calendar because you can’t donate more often than every 8 days (I think that’s right). We got it worked out but all because we were blessed to have a clinic nurse who went out of her way to make sure it all went smoothly.

The only other requirement was that my blood type had to be very compatible with Shana’s, which it was (the Red Cross gave me a test).

The biggest advantage of doing all this was that Shana received more platelets. Normally, donated platelets from a typical donor is of sufficient quantity to help two patients. The donated platelets are divided by the blood bank and distributed to two different patients. In the case of a direct donation however, the receiving patient receives all of the donated platelets. This means that a bigger bag is hung for the transfusion. The process for the patient takes a little longer, but the patient also can go without another platelet transfusion for a longer period of time.

Just so you know, the donation process isn’t the easiest, it’s a little more involved than donating blood, which I had never done before. Your body gets fairly cold as you’re lying there, so I brought our old microwavable stadium seat to help keep me warm, plus they had warmed blankets. The nurses at the Red Cross were great, they explained the process to me, and did everything they could for my comfort.

I want to end by saying I cannot begin to describe the incredibly gratifying feeling of being able to directly help my child’s body by donating platelets for her, and I was very grateful for the opportunity to do it. ♥

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