“I am not here as a COVID-19 warrior,” began bhaskar reddy, a senior employee of Gleneagles Global health City Hospital in Perumbakkam, Chennai. “There are two dimensions to life successful and purposeful. The former is when you take something from the society, and the latter is when you give back. As someone who has recovered from COVID-19, I was successful. But I also donated plasma, to be able to give back. This is my appeal to all Covid-19 warriors too come forward [to donate plasma] and save lives.” As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic and finding a vaccine for it, there have been some treatments that have been found to help patients in the interim, and plasma therapy is one of them.
This plasma contains antibodies that the recovered person had produced against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. When this plasma is transfused to sick persons, it could help their immune system in fighting the coronavirus. At the event, several doctors working at the Gleneagles hospital who had gotten infected with the coronavirus, received plasma and also donated it after recovering shared their experience. Some other persons also talked about how grateful they were to have received treatment and how they felt about donating blood post-recovery.
Moreover Dr Clara, director of Nursing at the hospital, was the first to share her experience of having contacted COVID-19 and later, donating plasma. She said that the experience of having the disease made her empathize more with her patients. Several people who had received plasma as well as donated it expressed gratitude towards the doctors, nursing as well as the housekeeping staff for taking care of them. An emotional Dr balaji Pillai, a former COVID-19 patient, talked about his 28-day stay at the hospital and thanked the two donors whose plasma helped him recover. He said “I am still recovering, and will be back among you in the next 7-10 days. And I will become a plasma donor soon too”.
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