Did you know, you can now donate plasma at SANBS?
The Polokwane branch of the South African National Blood Services (SANBS) launched the first Heomonatics PC2 device in the province on Tuesday, 10 September.
POLOKWANE – The PC stands for Plasma Collect and that is what the machine does.
Tebogo Taunyane is a learning and development practitioner who visited Polokwane to help with the device. She explains that the process of donating plasma is the same as donating blood, but with a twist.
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“Donors are connected to the device as if they are going to donate blood. The blood is then transferred into the machine where it is spun and separated. The plasma is dropped and the red blood cells and platelets are returned to the donor’s bloodstream. We add coagulation to the blood to prevent it from clotting and when the blood returns to the donor, we add saline to make up for the volume of plasma withdrawn.”
The process can take anything between 30 minutes and one hour to complete and the blood is returned to the donor at the same speed that it is going into the machine. The process runs in cycles of 10 minutes each, depending on the donor. There are between three and five cycles per donation.
Bethuel Mokonyane, collection manager at SANBS says that people with A and AB blood types are urged to donate plasma as it is much needed. “Donors, especially woman who struggle with their iron levels can become plasma donors and you can donate plasma every two weeks. The plasma donated is produced back into the body within two weeks. You can even donate plasma if you were in a malaria area.”
The third plasma donor in Polokwane was Antoinette Potgieter. “I only came in to donate blood and they asked me if I am willing to rather donate plasma. I said yes and here I am. It feels nothing different from donating blood.”
