February 6, 2006
New machines make donating platelets easier, quicker
Mickey Rooney gives platelets at the Kraft Center using the new Trima machine.
Charles "Mickey" Rooney has given blood platelets at Dana-Farber 170 times, but only recently has he been able to tackle a common nuisance during the procedure: an itchy nose.
Rooney and other Dana-Farber donors are benefiting from new "Trima" machines in the Kraft Family Blood Donor Center that make it easier than ever to give platelets - disc-shaped compounds that help clot blood and are needed by cancer patients whose disease and treatment severely diminish their own supply. Rather than having blood taken from both arms during the collection process, donors now have one arm free for reading, doing crossword puzzles, or handling troublesome itches.
Donations are also faster than ever (45-70 minutes each, versus 90-minutes with the old machines), which, in addition to donor comfort, results in a higher collection rate for the Kraft Center. Four of five new machines have arrived at the center's Jimmy Fund building locale since December, joining four acquired during the previous two years. Before seeing regular duty, each device undergoes a two-and-a-half week "validation" process at the Brigham and Women's Hospital blood bank (the Kraft Center's partner facility) in which it is tested to make sure it is producing the purest platelets possible.
"We're fortunate to have the space for nine machines, and this gives us an opportunity to continue growing our donor base," says Mardi Ellis, RN, BSN, program manager for the Kraft Center. "We currently have around 20 to 25 donors coming in per day, and we'd love to get that total up to 30."
Early reviews from both donors and staff have been positive. In addition to being smaller, quieter, and easier to move around, the Trima machines are also more user-friendly. Nurse Karen Brousseau, RN, HP, ASCP, says the monitors, complete with step-by-step graphics, make it much easier to train new employees, and instead of inserting a series of tubes and adjusting several settings for each new donor, she now just needs to snap a plastic plate of tubes into place and a computer armed with the donor's height, weight, and other key statistics does most of the rest.
"It's easier to troubleshoot, and if the donor feels cold or has a tingling feeling due to the anticoagulant fluid, we can more easily make adjustments for them," explains Brousseau. "Because the machine is more efficient, we also have a much higher split rate - if we collect enough platelets from one donor, we are able to split the product which can be used to help two patients. Our split rate with the old machines was about 20 percent; now it's about 50 percent."
Rooney, who has ridden in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge bike-a-thon with the Kraft Center's "Platelet Peddlers" team, is happy to know he now has the opportunity to help even more patients with his donations - especially since his wife, Dorothy, is being treated at Dana-Farber for lung cancer.
"Since she was diagnosed in September, its striking home for me more than ever how important this all is," Rooney says as Brousseau readies him for one of the 20 or so donations he'll make in 2006. Dorothy agrees: "I have a newfound appreciation for life, and what he and all the donors are doing."
During 2005, the Kraft Center collected 5,547 bags of platelets and had 59 donors reach "Team 20" status with 20 or more donations in the year. For more information on how you can give platelets, please call (617) 632-3660.
