Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland

Every three weeks, Khaliah receives a blood transfusion at Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland. Her brother receives a transfusion every six weeks. As patients with sickle cell, Khaliah and her family know firsthand the lifesaving care the hospital provides. Watch Khaliah and her mother explain in their own words the importance of sickle cell treatment.

Did you know that Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland is the only independent not-for-profit regional medical center for children in Northern California? It is the oldest pediatric medical center between Los Angeles and Seattle providing exceptional medical care for children for more than 95 years. Children’s Hospital is also a national leader in many pediatric specialties and sub-specialties including hematology/oncology, neonatology, cardiology, orthopedics, sports medicine, and neurosurgery.

In December 2010, BCP was selected as the provider of volunteer blood donations to Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland. BCP provides approximately 10,000 pints of blood and blood components to Children’s Hospital to help patients like Khaliah and her brother.

Children’s Hospital is also a premier teaching hospital with an outstanding pediatric residency program and subspecialty fellowship programs. Its research program, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), is internationally-renowned for taking state-of-the-art basic and clinical research and translating it into interventions for treating and preventing human diseases. And its Center for Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia (CST) strives to improve public awareness of these diseases and to expand the current knowledge base, and to provide innovative treatment, care and cures.

In addition to providing blood to them, this September 24th, we are proud to announce that Children’s Hospital will be one of our many nonprofit partners for BCP’s “101 Heroes Blood Drive” in support of Sickle Cell Awareness Month.

To learn more, visit http://www.childrenshospitaloakland.org.

Keeping Every Drop of Blood Safe

Every two seconds someone needs a blood transfusion. A new mother might require blood to help save her life after childbirth complications, a young man might need blood after a serious car accident or a teenager might require blood every other week to help her battle sickle cell anemia.

Did you know that before patients like these receive a lifesaving transfusion, the blood goes through a rigorous process, the most critical of which is ensuring it’s safe? Donated blood is screened for more than 10 different infections that could prove deadly to patients including HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and West Nile Virus. This technology has helped revolutionize blood testing and made concerns about transfusion-transmitted infections almost a thing of the past. In fact, in the United States, the chance of getting HIV from a blood transfusion is now less than one in two million. That’s largely thanks to the availability of highly sensitive tests – developed by Novartis Diagnostics – that detect very low levels of infection and allow centers like us to screen donated blood before it reaches patients. Novartis Diagnostics is a global leader in blood safety and they’re based right in our backyard in Emeryville, California.

And in September, Novartis Diagnostics will help ensure even more blood is available to patients by sponsoring BCP’s “101 Heroes Blood Drive,” in support of Sickle Cell Awareness Month.

BCP is grateful to Novartis Diagnostics for helping us deliver safe blood donations to patients in need and for partnering with us to encourage even more people to give the gift of life!