Better to give (1983)

Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Laughter] Whether it's children playing red Indians or old people crossing a road, accidents happen all too often. A blood transfusion is often vital to help recovery. Janie. Hello, Janie. Can you hear me? Yes. Can you tell me how you're feeling? Are you all right? Not too good. The blood comes from people like these, ordinary people who have volunteered to become blood donors. There are some 2 million of them in Great Britain. Blood donation is very simple. Details vary from region to region, but basically what happens is that records are checked to make sure that the donor has not recently taken drugs or been ill. Yeah. Thank you very much. Right hand sharp little pin prick. Thank you. just a pin prick and then the drop of blood is tested to ensure that you're fit to give blood. The whole process doesn't take long and there's always a doctor present. And how are you? I'm fine. Yeah. And no trouble, sir. No, not at all. Is that comfortable enough? Yeah, that's fine. The amount each donor gives is carefully monitored by an attendant. Hello. Haven't seen you for a long time. Yes, it's been well over a year. It's her baby. Oh, lovely. What did you have? A little boy. What did you call him? Hello. Good morning. Mrs. Susan Burton. Yes. How are you this morning? And no problem. When the donation has been completed, a short rest. Then it's time for a cup of tea and a biscuit. In many cases of illness or after surgery, an accident or a hemorrhage, perhaps in childbirth, a blood transfusion can be essential for survival or to aid recovery. Whole blood is a miracle liquid and though it's often used by itself, it contains many valuable components. There are four major ones. or can be used separately. Red cells are invaluable for patients with anemia. White cells are extremely powerful agents in fighting some infections. Platelets are useful in helping wounds to heal, particularly after major surgery, but they have other special uses. For instance, in leukemia, which was once invariably a fatal disease, platelets are important. Without the help of platelets, those essential little items that make your blood clot, the treatment of leukemia, such as this little child has, would be much more difficult. With the use of platelets and other blood products, we can now effect a cure in almost half children who have some sort of leukemia. In other sorts of leukemias, we can effect a cure in perhaps 75 or maybe even 80%. So, it is essential that we have these blood products to allow our drugs time to work and cure these children. It is from the plasma, the fourth component of blood, that the widest variety of products is made. The plasma collected from many people can, by sophisticated processing, produce more than 20 products, and each one by itself is an enormous help to the sick and can even be a lifesaver. It's obviously wasteful to give whole blood to a patient who only needs one particular part of it. One of the many products separated from plasma is in great demand in the casualty departments of hospitals for patients with bad cuts or abrasions who are liable to be infected by tetanus germs which can cause lock jaw and even death. Okay, we'll clean this up and then we give a cause to tetanus. This young man has hemophilia, an incurable hereditary disease which prevents blood clotting and so stops internal bruises or wounds from healing. Another blood product called factor 8 has changed his life. Not so long ago, a bad cut or bruise would mean immediate rush to the local hospital. And I was lucky to get my treatment completed within 2 hours. Now I'll just go straight to the fridge where I've got a constant supply of factor 8. Then I'll just inject myself. It's a lot simpler and a lot easier. The many products obtained from plasma are so vital and in such continually growing demand that a technique called plasma feresis is being increasingly used to make more plasma available. This is my 1,137 plasma donation. Plasma can be donated from whole blood but you cannot get enough by doing it this way. So they use these self-searing machines. The plasma's donation. In the automatic system, the donor's blood is continually fed into the machine. This separates out and collects the yellowish plasma. The red blood cells are continually fed back to the donor. They have, so to speak, just been borrowed. Because the body renews the plasma in a day or two, a plasma feresis donor can give plasma every fortnight instead of the usual twice a year for whole blood donors. When automatic equipment is not available, a manual system can be used. Manual plasma feresis is very like giving an ordinary blood donation. The difference is that they take the blood away and separate off the plasma. The importance of plasma feresis is that if all the plasma had to be obtained from whole blood donations, there would be more red cells than are needed. They would be wasted. In the laboratory, after the donation has been centrifuged, the plasma is further separated by squeezing it off from above the red cells. After the plasma has been separated, all your own red cells are returned to you. Every healthy person's blood cells are visually indistinguishable, but there are certain small chemical differences. Because of these, blood has been divided into four main groups. Care must be taken when giving a transfusion that the donor's blood is compatible with the recipients. Blood has another important characteristic. It's either Reesus negative or Reesus positive. Every single donation of blood has a small sample tested by an automatic machine to determine its blood group. [Applause] The only problem with plasma freeresis donations is that it takes rather longer than normal ordinary six monthly donation. Um it's usually about 3/4 of an hour to an hour and with a long journey it actually I'm lucky to have a considerate boss. It takes me altogether about two and a half hours and I come about once a fortnight. It really pleases me to be able to be a plasmis donor because I have a rare blood group which is AB negative. This contains also the antireus factor. When a mother has a reesus negative type blood and the father has reesus positive, there is a chance that their baby may be born with reesus disease. This can cause anemia, jaundice, heart failure, even death. This can be prevented in almost all cases by giving the mother an injection of anti-reesus concentrate soon after the birth of each child. In the past, many babies died because of this disease. With this new treatment, the number has been dramatically reduced. So the separation of blood into its many components has become a vital function of the transfusion service. The donations of whole blood are put into the centriuge and spun around at high speed. The speed generates a force which drives the heavier red cells to the bottom of the pack. The lighter plasma stays on top. The plasma from many individual donations is pulled into larger, more manageable packs. The packs are sealed and then frozen. The frozen blocks are sent to one of the few centers which have the complex equipment needed to produce the many products from plasma. Every drop of plasma is processed to the maximum degree to extract its precious ingredients, but there's never enough to improve the supply. We need more blood donors to become plasma feresis donors and more people to become blood donors. Have your right hand as well, please. [Music] One severely burnt patient can need at least 20 bottles of plasma because the blistering from burns can cause a massive loss of fluid. So, a really serious fire with many casualties can involve the use of hundreds of bottles. [Music] In major surgery, fresh frozen plasma is often used to help the blood clot. And major surgery is becoming increasingly common. In Britain, on average, two babies are born with congenital heart defects every day, and surgery helps many of them to live normal lives. Every year there are thousands of people from tiny tots to great-grandparents who are helped and who often have their lives saved by the many miracle products from blood thanks to the donors in the blood transfusion service. If you would like to become a donor, ring the blood transfusion service. I gather I'm especially valuable donor since I've had two children. Well, that was my first time and it went fine. Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Oh, good. I'm glad of that. I've given several times, but uh I had open heart surgery last year and so I reckon I I've had more than I've given.