51-year-old Borivali resident Sanjay Bapat has a record of donating platelets at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) for 240 times. According to Bapat, we should whole-heartily donate platelets as it helps save lives of others. Hehas been an inspiration for a few of his too. Just like Bapat, there are around 10 voluntary donors who have donated platelets more than 100 times in TMH.
In the last 10 years, the number of voluntary platelets donors has increased in TMH from 11% to over 87%. As a centre for cancer treatment, the hospital gets over 60,000 patients per year, of which around 3,000 are paediatric patients.
In 2009, around 25% of the paediatric patients visiting the centre were refused treatment majorly due to financial issues and for non-availability of platelets donors.
According to the hospital authority, the increase in numbers of voluntary platelets donors has not only helped reduce the burden of the need of platelets donation but also reduced the number of replacement platelets donors.
In 2009, they received 228 platelets bags from voluntary donations, while in 2018 they received approximately 3349 platelets bags from similar sources. Similarly, the number of replacement platelet donors decreased in 10 years, as the patients received more of voluntary donors.
Dr Sunil Rajadhyaksha, head of department of transfusion medicine at TMH, said, "The shelf life of platelets is only five days. In TMH, the demand for platelets is high due to which there is no chance of wastage of the donated platelets. There are around 5,000 voluntary platelets donors till date but not everybody donates every year. The new mobile app with help contact them soonest."
In Mumbai there are 45 blood banks, but only 15 among them have platelets donation facilities.
"The number of platelets donation has increased over the years but the number of cases to have increased. The number of patients has doubled over the years," added Dr Shripad Banavali, head of paediatric oncology.
Priya Dutt, who has been supporting TMH with Nargis Dutt Foundation, said, "When we started the voluntary donation campaign 10 years ago, we started by creating awareness among the young generation with the help of educational institutes. Platelets are important but not everyone is aware of the usage of platelet donations and how the impact it creates on the patients."
WHAT’S PLATELETE?
Platelets are blood cells that help the human body form clots to stop bleeding. Treatment of cancer such as chemotherapy and radiation damage the cells in the bone marrow which manufacture blood and platelets
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