EDMONTON -- From donor to recipient, blood goes through a lengthy process to get to those in need.
Carleen Sambrano chose to celebrate her birthday by donating blood.
“Usually you celebrate it for yourself, but I wanted to celebrate it by giving others the opportunity to live.”
It was Sambrano’s fifth donation to Canadian Blood Services, but she’s always wondered where her donation goes.
After donors give blood at the donor centre at Canadian Blood Services, it makes its way upstairs to the production lab.
The blood is separated into three parts: platelets, plasma, and red blood cells.
It’s placed in the national inventory, and then Edmonton’s distribution centre gets involved.
“We start at six in the morning and work until nine at night,” said Jackie Lee. “We have staff on call 24/7 for emergencies after hours.”
The Edmonton distribution centre serves more than 80 hospitals in central and northern Alberta, as well as parts of the Northwest Territories and northern B.C.
“Hospitals will fax their orders to us, if they’re routine orders for blood products,” said Lee. “For stat orders they’ll also phone us to ensure there’s no delay.”
Last year, almost 56,000 red cells were shipped, along with 7,000 units of plasma and platelets.
Lee says they also shipped about 262,000 vials of plasma protein products.
“The shipments are very important, so we have to ensure clear communication with the hospitals and our transportation department, to ensure the patients get the products that they need.”
The timing with shipping blood products is also very important says Lee.
“Our boxes are validated for between 24 and 27 hours.”
The importance of what is in those boxes is not lost on the drivers—like Scott Romaine—that deliver them.
“This load here’s worth more than the value of my car,” said Romaine.
The boxes are tamper sealed, and temperature checked along the way.
Once the shipments arrive at their destination, physicians say they can rest a bit easier.
“It’s very anxious because you want to evaluate patients properly, you want to give it where it’s most needed,” said Dr. Salwa El Malti.
Planning can be difficult because inventory is based on past demand. Last year at the University of Alberta Hospital, 22,000 red blood cells were used.
“We need blood, but at the same time we don’t want to waste blood because blood has a certain age. So we would order what’s appropriate,” said El Malti.
The more donors, the more hope there is for patients in need.
“It makes me proud that I can do it, as others receive from me,” said Sambrano.
To find a donor centre near you, click here.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Erin Isfeld.
