Clinical Center News
Winter 2020

NIH Blood Bank donors - making a difference

A gathering of NIH staff and blood and platelet donors
On Dec. 12, the staff of the NIH Donor Center at Fishers Lane held a Donor Appreciation Open House in honor of the platelet and blood donors that support our Clinical Center patients. In 2019, blood and platelet donors from the surrounding community made 2,000 platelet donations through the NIH Apheresis Donor Program supporting approximately 3,100 transfusions for Clinical Center patients. More than 3,800 red blood cell transfusions also took place at the Clinical Center which the Donor Center at Fishers Lane supported through the collection of Double Red Cell (DRCA) blood donations. Without these dedicated volunteers much of the lifesaving work of the NIH would not be possible. Please consider joining our family of donors! Do Something Amazing, Help Save a Life! Call the Donor Center at 301-496-4321, email NIHPlatelets@cc.nih.gov or visit www.cc.nih.gov/blooddonor.
 
NIH patient stands with care providers
Six years ago, Aaron was diagnosed with a rare disease causing his immune system to function improperly, resulting in multiple severe respiratory infections. At the NIH Clinical Center, America's research hospital, Aaron received a stem cell transplant to replace his diseased cells with normal cells that can fight off infections. Following the transplant, Aaron experienced complications leading to episodes of continuous bleeding. To save his life, he needed multiple transfusions of red blood cells and platelets, sometimes up to 3 platelet transfusions in one day! During this period, he received a total of 153 platelet transfusions. Now, Aaron has returned home to South Carolina and has not had any more infections. He visited the NIH Clinical Center in September 2019, as seen above with Department of Transfusion Medicine fellows. Aaron says he is very grateful for the generosity of all the wonderful blood donors at NIH. Every day, there are many patients at NIH just like Aaron who need platelets. Without the initiative and generosity of platelet donors, NIH would not be able to support the treatment of patients like Aaron.

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