Hospitals facing blood platelet crisis

Published on Saturday 19 September 2009 19:55

SCOTLAND is facing a critical shortage of a vital blood component after a surge in demand from seriously-ill patients.

Transfusion chiefs are now launching an unprecedented appeal for platelet donors.

More aggressive and regular cancer treatments have created extra demand for platelets, the constituent that helps blood to clot and which is vital in the treatment of many patients.

But with a shelf-life of just five days, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) must constantly obtain fresh supplies of platelets, which are collected in a different way to normal blood donations. With just 1,550 active platelet donors in Scotland, stocks can fall below desired levels. The service is now launching its first campaign to boost the number of platelet donors to at least 2,020 by the end of the year.

With an ageing population more prone to cancer, and the development of even more aggressive treatments to cure the disease, experts predict that the demand for platelet donors will continue to grow.

Moira Eadie, deputy donor services manager at SNBTS, said: "Cancer patients are a big user, particularly nowadays with the chemotherapy treatments which are more and more aggressive in order to cure patients. That is fantastic, but that chemotherapy kills off the good parts of the blood as well as the bad parts, so patients need platelets to sustain them and keep them going."

As well as cancer patients, platelets are also used to treat premature babies and babies with serious health problems, as well as people who have suffered major trauma and blood loss in accidents.

Eadie said the service aimed to have at least 100 adult doses of platelets in stock at all times, but sometimes that could fall to between 70 and 75. And because of platelets' short shelf-life, the service is constantly having to replenish its stocks.

Platelets can be collected from normal blood donations. But getting enough for one adult dose requires four whole donations. But by using a machine which separates the platelets from the blood, three doses can be collected from one donor in one sitting.

The process takes between one hour and 90 minutes and donors are encouraged to attend every four to five weeks. Because this process puts the red cells back into the donor's body, less time is needed between donations – compared to 12 weeks for whole blood donations.

The procedure can only be carried out at the main blood donor centres in Scotland – Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

Eadie said: "We just couldn't treat the cancer patients that we do without these cells. It is a regular commitment and it is a big ask – we ask a lot of people to give platelets. But when they do they can be sure they will be treating some of the most critically ill people in our hospitals."

One Glasgow family know only too well the importance of platelet donation. Claire Leishman and her partner Steven McRobbie paid tribute to the donors who helped save their son Ciaran's life after he was born with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a condition in which his bowel, liver and stomach were wrongly located inside his chest, pushing through a hole in his diaphragm.

Leishman, 23, from Drumchapel, said: "I hadn't given blood before and kind of felt guilty because Ciaran had been through so much. If it was not for the blood transfusions that he had he wouldn't have survived at all.

"When he was born he was blue," Leishman said. "It was a few hours before they came back and found out what was wrong.

"To start with, he was only given a five to ten per cent chance of survival."

Ciaran needed a treatment, which requires platelets to work, to help him survive.

After further treatment and several operations, Ciaran was allowed home 11 weeks later. Leishman's partner McRobbie, 30, said his son's fight was "inspirational". He has since donated blood twice and hopes to be able to give platelets too.

Leishman added: "I had never heard of platelets before this happening to my family and would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to every platelet donor in Scotland. I am now planning to become a platelet donor myself, and I'd like to encourage many others to do so."

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