by Mike Mauldin
This would be a better place to live if everyone was interested in helping needy people. Area children need your help to survive and live less painful lives.
The children suffer from hemophilia, a genetic blood disorder, and you can help them by donating blood in the TCC Hemophilia Blood Drive Tuesday and Wednesday, November 23 and 24 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. in the student lounge at the south entrance to the Hideaway in the student center.
Hemophiliacs affects between 5,000 and 10,000 males. The sufferers lack one of the proteins in their blood that form blood clots.
Until recently, hemophilia was treatable only with massive transfusions, but now doctors have perfected a process called cryoprecipitation, which separates the clotting protein from the rest of the plasma. Without this protein, hemophiliacs cannot clot. A parent’s scan know when a child has hemophilia when bruising appears or bleeding starts.
Cryoprecipitation is a lengthy process involving taking the donated blood in a flash freezer, then thawing the blood to a specific temperature and removing the plasma while leaving the Factor VIII and other components to be refrozen and thawed again and again until only Factor VIII, a yellow liquid, is all that is left. From one unit of whole blood, one teaspoon of Factor VIII is all that can be derived.
Cryoprecipitation does have its disadvantages. The blood that is used must be fresh. The blood must be processed no longer than four hours after it leaves the donor. Workers at the Four States Blood Service will be transporting and processing blood continuously during this drive.
There are two families in the Texarkana area with two hemophiliacs each. These boys will receive two units of Factor VIII for every unit of whole blood donated in the TCC Blood Drive. The other blood components, plasma and blood cells, will be used by other patients.
It takes very little time to donate blood. All donors at the TCC Hemophilia Blood Drive will receive a free T-shirt as a token of appreciation from the hemophilia families and the Four States Blood Service.
The pain of the needle is nothing compared to the pain that your Factor VIII will alleviate.