Paying it forward: Recovered SC COVID-19 patients donating plasma for treatments
About a month after being in quarantine for the coronavirus, Lynn Weeks, 68, of Camden, found herself inside of a mobile medical unit outside of Prisma Baptist Parkridge with an IV in her arm, holding a ball to pump out blood.
What was coming out of her arm potentially could help people who are in the hospital being treated for COVID-19.
Weeks recently donated plasma as part of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration trial, coordinated by the Mayo Clinic, to see how effective the plasma of patients who have recovered from the coronavirus is at treating patients in the hospital with COVID-19 hoping to get better.
“I think it’s a privilege to just be here and to be able to give plasma and pay it forward to help somebody else,” said Weeks who was able to recover from the disease at home.
So far 15 to 20 people who have recovered from COVID-19 have donated plasma through Blood Connection, who partnered with Prisma Health to find potential donors, said Robert Rainer, the medical director of the Blood Connection.
Researchers are interested in whether the antibodies found in the plasma of people who have recovered from the coronavirus can be used to help other coronavirus patients recover and before they may need to go onto a ventilator, Rainer said.
For the first two weeks of the project, plasma collected in South Carolina will stay in the area where it was collected, Rainer said. After a supply is built up locally, the Blood Connection will contribute to the national supply.
The plasma eventually can be transfused into patients said Helmut Albrecht, the chairman of internal medicine for Prisma Health Midlands and the University of South Carolina.
One donor can generate up to four treatment units per donation, and a donor could give every two weeks. One treatment course could save a patient in the ICU, Albrecht said.
“These antibodies we hope will neutralize the virus in patients who are currently ill,” Albrecht said.
Weeks said she was exposed to the virus after her and her husband, Donnie, had a five-minute conversation with some friends, who eventually tested positive, at a restaurant. They were in close proximity while they chatted, and the only physical contact was brief hands touching shoulders.
However, a few days later in early March, Weeks began feeling ill. She had a cough and was fatigued. A diabetic with heart disease, she thought she was having cardiac issues.
“It was just difficult to get out of bed and go downstairs,” she said.
A test eventually confirmed she had COVID-19, which led to her and Donnie notifying people they had come in contact with and places they have visited.
She stayed in quarantine at home for 19 days while Donnie never showed any signs of illness took care of her, making her meals including her preference of grilled cheese during the sickness.
“Unfortunately for me, I had a very hearty appetite,” said the retired teacher. “So I never lost my appetite. I never lost any weight either.”
Now even Donnie Weeks, who was never tested for the coronavirus, hopes there is an antibody test soon that he could take to see if he had contracted the virus, even though he remained asymptomatic. He eventually wants to donate plasma himself.
Health care worker donates plasma
On Friday, about 10 recovered COVID-19 patients donate plasma at Prisma Baptist Parkridge.
Among those was Kevin Gibbs, a 34-year-old radiologist Pitts Radiology, which also provides services at Prisma.
The Columbia resident thought he had a cold when he eventually tested positive for the virus.
He said he thinks he caught the virus from a patient who had not been diagnosed while in a hospital.
“That’s just backwards guessing,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs managed his illness from home, while trying to stay away from his family to keep them from getting sick.
His treatment included taking Advil for the fever, which at one point reach 100.2 degrees, taking Mucinex to break up congestion, and drinking lots of water.
“My symptoms were pretty mild all in all,” Gibbs said. “You hear horror stories about what’s going on with this pandemic. I did not have that same experience as a lot of people in the hospital on ventilators.”
For Gibbs, getting tested for the virus was the worst part of the whole experience.
“It’s a nasal swab,” Gibbs said. “It felt just like hot wasabi in my nose. I felt residual stinging for a couple days. I think most of my symptoms resolved before the nasal swab sensation went away.”
Gibbs said he was fortunate he had a mild case of COVID-19, which motivated him to donate plasma to hopefully to help sick patients.
“It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to come out and donate plasma: to pay that forward to some degree,” he said.
