Dr. Muguette Isona, along with Dr. Alex Cruz, explained the plasma transfusion process for a COVID-19 positive patient on Friday.
“The plasma process, the plasma transfusion that began in the Municipality of San Juan is a process that began several weeks ago, approximately a month, when we diagnosed the first positive patient. Thereafter, we begin to track these patients daily. Most of these patients were made using a servi-car, others were made at the Municipal Hospital (in San Juan), ”explained Dr. Isona in an interview with journalists.
“The donor on this occasion, which was the first, is registered with the CDT servicarro of the Municipality of San Juan. We took that positive sample and from then on, we began to track both the patient and her family, as well as her close relatives. And from there we started doing the repeated samples to see when the patient was going to be negative, “he added.
“Once the patient tested negative, our plasma team was approached, we have a separate team that is working on what is a plasma transfusion and by accepting the part of the transfusion, the whole process began there,” abounded.
He mentioned that the donation was on Wednesday of this week and today he could perform the transfusion to another patient.
Dr. Alexis Cruz, hematologist, oncologist and specialist in Marrow Transplantation, explained that after the possible donor is identified by the staff who are working with the samples, “we set ourselves the task of contacting that donor and verifying if you really are a candidate for plasma donation. For this, the donor has to have a positive test, he has to show that he is without symptoms for 14 days, that is very important, and he has to have a negative test also with the criteria of more than 18 years ”.
“After confirming that this donor is a candidate, this is an experimental treatment that is done through a protocol, what we did was that we enrolled the institution in a protocol that exists at the national level of all the hospitals in the United States. United with the Mayo Clinic institution. Once the institution is registered, the patient was contacted and directed to the Blood Bank last Wednesday, the patient made her plasma donation and the plasma that we are using today was collected for the patient who is hospitalized here, “he added. the doctor.
Plasma is the liquid part of the blood that contains proteins and antibodies that are responsible for fighting infection.
“In this case, if we acquire plasma from a patient who had an infection with COVID, it is the same plasma that was fighting against COVID. They will neutralize or eliminate the virus. We collect these antibodies through the plasma that is the liquid part of the blood where the antibodies are and give it to a patient who has a COVID infection, but very importantly, it cannot be to any COVID patient. It has to be mostly a patient who is in a critical condition because they are the patients who benefit and it has been shown in the studies that have been carried out that they benefit from the therapy, ”said Dr. Cruz.P
Patients who have a very low oxygen level or who depend on a ventilator to breathe are the ones who benefit from this type of plasma transfusion called convalescent plasma because it comes from a patient who recovered from COVID, he explained.
“You have to monitor it day by day, there is no exact time. We are going to evaluate that patient day by day and see how his condition is improving, ”he said.
Doctors agreed on the importance of increasing plasma donation under these cases of convalescent patients of COVID-19.
“It is very important that we increase plasma donations. For this they have to have 14 days with negative proof, after recovering from COVID. This has no treatment, we have to go further, “he concluded.
The mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulín Cruz Soto, announced that on Friday medical personnel from the Municipal Hospital of San Juan will perform the first convalescent plasma transfusion, from a patient cured of COVID-19 in an intubated patient who suffers from the virus and who He is hospitalized in the Municipal Hospital.
It is the first time in Puerto Rico that this procedure related to COVID disease has been carried out19.
“We are entering a new stage, that of collaborating in the efforts to identify an effective treatment for the management and help of intubated patients who suffer from COVID-19 by making, for the first time in Puerto Rico, an infusion of convalescent plasma in a patient intubated in our Municipal Hospital of San Juan ”, Cruz Soto said in a written communication.
The Mayor thanked the Municipal Hospital work team led by Dr. Alexis Cruz, hematologist / oncologist and marrow transplant specialist for this effort to find viable treatments for COVID-19 patients. He also thanked José Alsina, from the Mutual Services Blood Bank, who managed to make an exception and allow the plasma collected in Puerto Rico to stay here.
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