What Does It Take to Donate Plasma Blood? Covid-19 Survivor Nafisa Ali’s Niece Explains
While 2020 so far seems like a nightmare on loop – and one that we can’t wait to be done with thank you very much – there might still be some positivity to hold on to.
A ray of hope in the fight against coronavirus emerged from Bengaluru, as 36-year-old Diya Naidu became the second plasma donor from the southern state. Her aunt, veteran actress Nafisa Ali shared the news about her “brave” Diya on Instagram. In a follow-up post she urged her followers to go ahead and read Diya’s first-hand experience of donating plasma. “It is the need of the hour,” she captioned. “Help save lives.”
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Diya, who is a dancer and choreographer, had returned from Switzerland on March 9. However, she had been quite asymptomatic, showing no signs of listed symptoms like cough, cold, or fever. Instead she developed a complete loss of smell and taste. She went public with her Covid-19 infection following a throat swab test and was admitted to the isolation ward of the ESI Hospital, Indiranagar once her blood test samples came back positive on March 18. She has since recovered and was discharged earlier this month on April 6.
On Monday, April 27, the Covid-19 warrior took to her Instagram to share the details about her plasma donation procedure that she had done the same day. “They have just started an amazing plasma donation effort in Karnataka. The doctors are not allowed, but asked me to put this out there so here it is,” she began her post.
She assured the readers that the donors didn’t have to be afraid of the process, stating that pain was as normal as one would experience with needles, something akin to blood donation, and “a bit of wooziness”. Accompanied with her four-part album from earlier in the day at the hospital, Diya stated the plasma donation process to be “super effective”.
“The blood of a Covid-19 recovered person is taken and separated into red blood cells and plasma,” she explained. “The plasma,” – described as “liquid gold” by Nafisa Ali – “which is full of antibodies is given to a critical patient. What you see here is 1/3rd of the amount they took. This was after [the] first cycle. They do three. Basically that full bag is given to JUST ONE PATIENT.” She also offered to put recovered patients in touch with the doctors concerned.
Naidu will donate again in two weeks. Stating that since she was “only the second person in the state to donate and they were figuring a few things out,” the process duration (four-five hours) was likely to reduce in the future.
Cheering on the medical team for their amazing work, she concluded her post by urging everyone to “try and help them.”
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Earlier this month, a 40-year-old HR professional was the first plasma donor in Bengaluru. Only days ago, Delhi reported the country’s first plasma therapy success when a 49-year-old man was taken off ventilator support after the treatment worked and he tested negative.
Plasma therapy for COVID-19 works in Delhi, 49 year old critical patient recovers.https://t.co/W9IEkLG8AW
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) April 21, 2020
While our fight against coronavirus is far from over, and the number of positive patients is much higher than that of those who have recovered, it goes without saying that plasma therapy is only the first step in our road to recovery.
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