A few weeks ago Bay Area residents “Raced for the Cure” along the Embarcadero to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation in its annual event. But did you know that you can “Donate for the Cure” any day of the week with Blood Centers of the Pacific to support breast cancer patients as they fight their battle?

According to the National Cancer Institute:

It is estimated there will be 207,090 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women in the US this year.

It goes without saying that most likely in your lifetime you will know a woman who will develop breast cancer. I’m willing to bet the majority of us already do.

This is why we Race for the Cure. We race because breast cancer touches us all. But did you know that many patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer will require the use of blood products? Red blood cells are the most-used blood component for surgery. Platelets are a component of your blood that help control bleeding and are often used to help patients with cancer, among others.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Won’t you give some red for those wearing pink?

Source

My Summer Vacation

by Jean Purcelli, Reference Lab Technologist

In July, I spent 12 days in the Republic of Moldova.  I was a volunteer member with the NPO, Global Healing.  Global Healing donates medical equipment and provides educational material and instruction to emerging countries, to update their medical practices.  Blood Centers of the Pacific (BCP) has made donations of equipment in the past to Global Healing and had asked Dr. Hirschler if she knew of anyone who could teach antibody identification. My job was to instruct laboratory staff how to identify red cell antibodies to make transfusions safer for their patients.

Moldova is the poorest country in Europe and is situated between Ukraine and Romania, not to be confused with a region of Romania called Moldavia.  Moldovans are essentially Romanians and speak Romanian and Russian.  About 20 percent of the population is Russian with another smaller minority of ethnic Hungarians.

Our team consisted of the Project Manager from Global Healing who speaks Russian, a QA/QC CLS* recently retired from Eureka Blood Bank, a CLS coag specialist from UC Davis, and an MD from Duke University.  We all worked independently and only saw one another for breakfast and dinner. I had a translator at all times and my slides had been translated into Romanian.  The laboratory staff were well-educated, with advanced degrees and two years of medical school.  They were highly-motivated and anxious to learn new methods and adapt to international standards.

In a country of 3.8 million, they draw 100,000 units of whole blood a year, but compared to the United States, they transfuse very few red cells.  They transfuse mostly plasma and plasma derivatives.  Currently, the hospitals in Moldova do not perform tests to detect red cell antibodies and there are no Immunohematology Reference Laboratories.  When a patient is transfused with red cells, a physician performs a bedside ABO and Rh confirmation and stays with the patient throughout the procedure to observe any reactions.  This MD is called a “transfusiologist”  and the bedside observation is called an in vivo crossmatch.

My experience was very interesting and positive. On the last day, the lab staff gave me a large bouquet of flowers, I almost cried! Global Healing invited us to return in March 2011, and although we were extremely busy, exhausted and anxious to get home, everyone on the team has already committed to return!

Credit to Bob LaLonde of the Eureka Blood Bank

* Clinical Laboratory Scientist