NEW DELHI, July 7: A band of city blood donors have joined hands to form a Platelet Support Group (PSG) to help cancer patients who require regular transfusion of this vital blood component.The group was formed last week after volunteers came to know of a cancer patient, Asha Sharma, 29, who was in dire straits after being unable to procure a donor. Patients of a plastic anaemia and acute lymphoid leukemia (A.L.L.) need regular transfusion.The PSG, a part of the Voluntary Blood Donors' Association (VBDA), is 10-member strong. But they plan to enroll 40 more members by the end this month. Platelets are extracted from fresh blood using a blood component separator. Patients, particularly in private hospitals, have to run from pillar to post first to arrange for fresh blood (the family members and friends too can not be relied upon for a regular requirement) and then getting platelets extracted.But in case of phoroseis platelets, donors are bled in small quantities and the small quantity of blood is simultaneously processed to extract platelets. The rest of the blood is then again put back in the donor's body.``At a time, only 400 mg of blood is derived and put back and the painful process of extracting just one unit of platelets takes about three hours. And all this while, the donor has to stay strapped to needles and pipes.That is why, the decision of these volunteers is particularly praiseworthy,'' says Kulbhushan Arora, general secretary of the Voluntary Blood Donors' Association (VBDA) under whose aegis the PSG has been set up. To encourage such gestures, the VBDA has decided to provide these donors a free accident insurance policy worth Rs 1 lakh.
