Doc, veggie seller donate plasma

Surat: Good news for positive patients as the city will soon start Plasma therapy for Covid-19 patients.
In a move to this effect, two patients who fought off Covid-19 successfully and recovered fully from the virus have donated their plasma at the blood bank at SMIMER Hospital on Sunday.
Confirming this, Dr Ankita Shah, professor and head, immunohematology and blood trransfusion (IHBT) department at the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC)-run hospital, told TOI, “One of the two donors include Dr Kishor Dudhat, an orthopaedic surgeon. We took their plasma as per the The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines and we will soon use plasma therapy for treatment of Covid-19 patients.”
“Plasma therapy is now recommended to Covid-19 patient with moderate disease as a treatment protocol. We request other recovered patients to come forward and help Covid patients recover early with plasma treatment,” Dr Shah said.
She further said that all precautions are being taken while taking the donation as the hospital takes plasma only from donors.
“All necessary tests are conducted before blood transfusion to patients as per the guidelines. We have a team of 42 people at SMIMER’s blood bank who are counselling patients for plasma donation as well as working on collection,” she added.
Chandresh Kothawala (39), vegetable shop owner in Sardar Market, who also donated plasma, said, "I convinced two other friends also to donated plasma." Kothawala had recovered from Covid-19 around 45 days ago.
“Our team at SMIMER and Covid-19 care centre at Samras Hostel are contacting recovered Covid-19 patients and encouraging them for plasma donations. Before being discharged from Covid care centre, over 200 patients had given oral consent for plasma donations,” Puneet Nayyar, (IFS), who is coordination, SMMIER as well as Covid Care Centre, told TOI.