Delhi: After helplessly struggling with looking for plasma donors for their father who has now recovered from COVID-19 , this family has created a platform for connecting willing donors & patients (and their families).
The two brothers went through this traumatic experience when their father was admitted at Max hospital, Saket, in urgent need of plasma as he was infected with the Novel Coronavirus. It took them four precious days to arrange the plasma. It all turned out fine but in those four days they had to go through several stages of desperation.
During that time, they met many more equally desperate people looking for that elixir but in those same four days, they also met those kind and generous people that donated their plasma to their ailing father.
This traumatic phase gave the family quite a vivid look at the desperate situations people go through. Consequently, the two brothers created a website which connects current COVID patients with recovered COVID patients who wish to donate plasma.
https://dhoondh.com/
The site reads:
“We hope this site can help find more of these souls for the people who need them the most.
We know what it feels like when a loved one is in the hospital with COVID-19.
We know the gut-wrenching feeling you get when the doctors tell you that plasma therapy is needed and helplessness when they inform you that they don’t have enough in the hospital so you will have to find some. We know the desperation with which the entire family frantically hunts for that life-saving plasma.”
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The website was launched on Jun 13 & has been receiving a regular response since. The website has already witnessed 142 patients & 80 plasma donors registering themselves.
It’s turned out to be a great initiative towards making the connection between plasma donor & recepient faster and more efficient.
How Plasma therapy helps Covid-19 patients?
Convalescent plasma therapy is based on the concept of passive immunity, where antibodies of some disease developed in a person are used for treating others. Plasma in the blood contains antibodies, which helps to fight foreign pathogens.
Who needs the therapy?
People who have pneumonia with type I respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are the category of patients for this treatment. Patients with mild illness do not require plasma therapy and the treatment is futile in patients with very critical illness with multi organ failure. There are no other medical conditions under which a patient cannot get this treatment.
How effective is the therapy?
Obviously, it is not a magic bullet and not 100% effective. It is one of the good treatment options available because as of now we do not have any definitive treatment for COVID-19. Most of the therapies are either experimental or have some effectiveness.