Ironic Blood
Editor Steve Barfield
Red Cross Investigates Blood Use
The American Red Cross has announced at our 22nd Annual
Symposium in Santa Cruz, California
that they were going to examine the prospects of using hemochromatosis blood as
donor blood.
They sent a representative to our meeting in the person of Lance Trainor
MD. Dr.Trainor is the
Chief Medical Officer for the Blood Banking System of the American Red Cross in
the Northwest
Region of the U.S. First they would look at this process in the Northwest
Region and when they encounter no problems there, they would roll out this policy
across the country. The Northwest Region
includes Oregon, Washington and Northern California.
Dr.Trainor is now conducting an operational trial of this blood use, which started in January of this year. I had a brief informal telephone interview with Dr.Trainor and found that he was enthusiastic about the prospects so far. He has discovered many "wins" for iron patients, donor recipients and staff. His staff is noticing a marked increase in transfusible units. Also that several recipients are benefiting at the same time from this process. Dr. Trainor tells us that for every one unit of blood from this program as many as three patients will benefit. This due to the way the blood is being utilized. Dr. Trainor finds that "we can't say enough good things about this process."
We at IOD are optimistic that no major problems will
surface. After all some affiliates of the
American Association of Blood Banks have been using hemochromatosis blood as
donor blood
for decades without problems. Each local branch approached this use on a
case by case basis.
But for this Association there is no national policy in place. Of course
Sweden has used this as donor blood for years and even screens for
hemochromatosis through their blood banks.
How did all of this come about?
Mardi Brick has been IOD's Ambassador for the State of
California for several years now
and is a person who knows how to get things done. After all she is the
former Mayor of her
hometown, Los Gatos. Mardi also heads up a local IOD support group for
her community.
Mardi has worked on the project of blood use for 2 1/2 years to bring it to
fruition. Basically
writing letters and follow through has been her approach. Mardi does admit
that when she first contacted the American Red Cross they told her they were
already considering the process.
Dr.Trainor suggested three years ago that they may be wasting usable
blood.
When the American Red Cross decided to go forward with an
investigation it was a no-brainer
to have Dr.Trainor head up the study. So Dr.Trainor from within and
Mardi Brick from without
have made a tremendous difference in a national policy for blood use. They
are both examples of what one person can accomplish.
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Copyright © 2006 by Iron Overload Diseases Assn, Inc. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED