Ever ponder what happens to your blood after you roll up your sleeve and make a donation? A report by the San Antonio Report details the journey your blood takes once it's out of your body, playing a critical role in saving lives in San Antonio and beyond.
Holding the responsibility for the well-being of communities sprawling across 48 counties and supporting over 100 hospitals, the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center is the lifeblood for San Antonio and South Texas's healthcare. According to Roger Ruiz, the organization's senior communications specialist, "This is what we have for all our communities, right? This is it for over 100 hospitals and 48 counties," he told the San Antonio Report. Between the shelves of seven modestly-sized glass refrigerators, your precious life-giving gift is sorted, scrutinized, and shipped out to save lives.
The process is far from simple. Once you've been bandaged up and given your post-donation juice and snack, the blood you donated could be on its way to fulfill one of three life-saving roles. It might remain 'whole blood', or it could be processed into platelets used for clotting or double red cells for patients dealing with anemia or significant blood loss. The center's manufacturing team, working against the tight deadlines that blood shelf life imposes, meticulously separates, labels, and prepares your blood for its various destines.
The urgency in processing blood is matched by the need for thorough testing. Infectious diseases and atypical antibodies are the targets of no less than 15 to 17 tests as per FDA requirements. "We've got about 15 to 17 different tests that are required by the FDA that we run," Scott Jones, senior VP and chief scientific officer of BioBridge Global said, in a statement obtained by the San Antonio Report. In a race against time, your blood components are being tested while also being processed so that hospitals can receive their orders post-haste.
BioBridge Global, the parent company of the center, oversees not only the blood journey but also delves into regenerative medicine and global research. They're scaling up stem cells, with the vision that these advancements will lead to more breakthroughs in medicine. Meanwhile, something as simple as the cord blood from a newborn baby is stored at frigid temperatures for potential treatment of cancer and anemia, truly making the blood donation cycle one of giving life in more ways than one.
What starts out as a kind gesture in a local high school, college, or workplace blood drive, stretches into the complex and urgent world of blood processing. Where technicians and automated systems align in a lifesaving ballet, all ensuring that when a call comes in from a hospital or after a crisis like the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center is ready to respond, supporting the intricate web of healthcare that's as vital to the community as the blood coursing through its veins.
