HEALTH – 10,000 is the number of blood donations per day needed to save lives. Whether it is a road accident or hemorrhage during a surgical operation, donating blood is necessary for the proper functioning of hospitals. On this World Blood Donor Day, we explain to you what platelet donation and plasma donation consist of, also resulting from blood donation, but much less known.
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Imagine you fall off your bike and you hurt yourself, you bleed. What allows the bleeding to stop and form a scab are the platelets present in your blood.
However, people with a blood disease such as leukemia, or who have to undergo heavy treatment, such as chemotherapy when they have cancer, are at significant risk of hemorrhage. They therefore need a platelet donation. More precisely, the French Blood Establishment (EFS) explains that 5,000 platelet donations are needed per day.
How does a donation work?
Unlike blood donation which only takes 10 minutes, plasma donation takes 45 minutes and platelet donation requires 1.5 hours because the process is different. You need a special machine that collects your blood and reinjects it.
“This is called apheresis donation”explains to HuffPostHervé Meinrad, director of collection and production at the EFS. “It is the act of directly processing the blood samples, to separate the elements and give you back what we do not want to collect and preserve, for example the platelets. »
If you wish to donate blood, plasma or platelets, there are still conditions to meet such as being between 18 and 70 years old, weighing more than 50 kg and being in good health. As for the other, more precise criteria, you can find them on the application or the EFS website where a questionnaire is at your disposal. You can also make an appointment at the center nearest to you.
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