Donating Platelets at the NIH Blood Bank

Episode # 80
Uploaded: December 14, 2011
Running Time: 03:00

CROWN: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.

Each year, more than 30,000 units of platelets are transfused at the NIH Clinical Center to treat patients here undergoing cancer therapy, stem cell transplants, and other diseases that require platelet therapy. These platelets come from the NIH Blood Bank, a donation center managed by the Department of Transfusion Medicine and located within Bldg. 10. Dr. Harvey G. Klein, chief of the Clinical Center’s Department of Transfusion Medicine, says:

KLEIN: We call ourselves a blood bank, but we’re really a blood pipeline because you need fresh platelets every day, 365 days a year. We’re just so grateful to those people who come in and donate all kinds of blood components, and particularly platelets because there is no substitute. You simply can’t get anything else that functions like a human platelet.

CROWN: Virtually 100 percent of all blood and platelet donations to the NIH Blood Bank go to Clinical Center patients. That’s why the Clinical Center and the NIH Blood Bank depend on volunteers, like Judy Miller, a Bethesda community member who has been coming to the campus for years to donate platelets.

MILLER: Most times when I tell people I’m going to donate platelets, they say, ‘what’s that?’ So they haven’t heard about it or they think I know someone who needs platelets.

CROWN: Platelets are small cells that help the blood to clot. Many people can donate platelets once a month and donations typically take about two hours. And Miller isn’t donating her platelets because she knows someone personally who is being treated at the Clinical Center. She’s donating because she says this how she can show her support.

MILLER: It amazes me that blood banks are always having to beat the bushes to find people to donate because it’s so easy. I would say give it a try. Why not? I mean, people bend over backwards to make you feel comfortable. These guys are experts at putting needles in your arm. Give it a try and see if you like it.
 
CROWN:  Donating platelets is safe and FDA-approved. To learn more, visit http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/blooddonor. Make an appointment to donate by calling (301) 496-4321. Daytime, evening and weekend hours are available.

From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Ellen Crown, at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

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