DAVE HILL/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Eight-year-old
Derek Finger plays his video game in the waiting
room of the Medical Center. Finger, who has aplastic anemia,
regularly benefits from platelet donations from the UCLA community.
DONATING BLOOD Where and when to donate blood
during the quarterly blood drive in the dorms:
Today: Rieber Hall in the Fireside Lounge, from 2
to 7 p.m. Feb. 6: Dykstra Hall and De Neve Plaza
at the Bradley International Center, from 2 to 7 p.m. Feb.
7: Hedrick Hall in the Fireside Lounge, from 2 to 7 p.m.
Feb. 8: Sunset Village in Covel Commons Grand
Horizon Room, from 2 to 7 p.m. Donate platelets Monday to Friday
from 7:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and Saturday from 7 to 11:30 a.m. at
the UCLA Blood & Platelet Center, Medical Building 200,
Ste.665. Call (310)206-6187 to schedule an appointment. SOURCE:
UCLA Sports info Original graphic by VICTOR CHEN/Daily Bruin Web
adaptation by NATALIE DAVIS and TIM MIU
By Emi Kojima
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Derek Finger, 8, wants to be a pediatric doctor when he grows up
because he knows “what it’s like to be in the
hospital.”
He certainly does. Since diagnosed last June with aplastic
anemia, a disease in which the immune system attacks the bone
marrow and the body can’t produce red cells and platelets, he
has been to the UCLA Medical Center at least once a week for a
platelet transfusion and other medical work.
Platelets are a component of blood that makes it clot. Cancer
patients, open-heart surgery and trauma patients specifically need
them to stop bleeding.
Finger remembers a nosebleed that went down his throat, which
felt like it was drowning him because his platelet count was so
low.
Although he has had a successful bone marrow transplant, he
still needs regular platelet transfusions because it takes time for
the new bone marrow to make them.
“Platelets are so hard to come by,” said
Derek’s mother, Debbie Finger, 40. “We need more people
to come in and donate.”
The UCLA Medical Center has about 30 patients of all ages at any
given time that need platelets.
The UCLA Blood & Platelet Center has begun a pilot program
that aims to increase student platelet donors. Bruins for Life,
which began Jan. 1, is recruiting students to donate platelets on a
regular basis.
Jill Lopez, a first-year graduate student in the School of
Public Health who runs Bruins for Life, hopes to educate students
about platelets, increase the number of donors and thank students
who have donated.
“You can literally save someone’s life with that
donation,” she said.
She passed out fliers about platelets during the dorm blood
drives last quarter and asked students if they would consider
donating platelets. The center hands out sweatshirts and raffle
tickets to donors and for bringing in friends.
Though 250 students said they were interested in donating, so
far about 30 have scheduled appointments to do so.
Southern California has the lowest number of blood donations in
the nation, with less than 3 percent of the population donating,
said Linda Goss, community liaison at the Blood & Platelet
Center. Platelet donations are far fewer.
“A lot of people don’t understand about
platelets,” she said. “I thought it looked off-putting
before I did it and then you realize it’s no big
deal.”
While many students donate whole blood, far fewer donate
platelets. Still, the number of platelets from one donation is
equivalent to harvesting platelets from eight donations of whole
blood.
Most people have 100,000 to 400,000 platelets in their body.
When the number drops to around 10,000, a patient will need a
transfusion. A donation generally consists of 50,000 to 60,000
platelets per person.
The standard procedure for donating platelets, called aphresis,
takes about 2 1/2 hours. Needles are placed in both arms, drawing
the blood out of one arm which goes to a centrifuge that separates
platelets from the red and white blood cells, then shoots the cells
back into the donor through the other needle.
“We’re not here to put people through pain,
we’re here to save other people’s lives,” Lopez
said. “And we pamper you.”
Donors must weigh more than 110 pounds, be over 17 years,
healthy, have never used intravenous drugs and cannot take
antibiotics prior to donating. They also need to load up on foods
rich in calcium and stay hydrated.
Risks are few, though some patients react to the citrate ““
an anti-coagulant ““ and their lips may start to feel numb,
said Jaime Rivas, one of the center’s platelet
coordinators.
Also, a donor may get tired, but Lopez said the procedure can be
less draining than giving whole blood because the donor retains
their red blood cells. It is the loss of cells that causes fatigue.
And while whole blood can only be donated every 56 days, platelets
can be donated every week.
“If you’ve donated blood and have two good veins,
then you can be a platelet donor,” Lopez said.
UCLA generally has to buy platelets from other sources because
there aren’t enough donations to match the growing need of
patients, he said. Although donations are on the rise, so are those
in need.
“If 1 percent of the students here donated, we
wouldn’t have to buy platelets from anyone,” Rivas
said.
For more information about donating platelets or about Bruins
for Life, call (310) 206-6187 or e-mail [email protected].