Follow the Blood: The Journey From Donor to Patient

When you roll up your sleeve to give blood or platelets, the impact of your donation reaches much further than you may realize. In a recent NewsChannel 5 story, a team followed a platelet donation from one donor’s arm in Columbia, Tennessee, all the way to its grateful recipient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The journey begins at the donor chair, where a special centrifuge machine separates platelets, red cells, and plasma. From there, donations travel by courier to testing and processing labs, where they undergo screening to ensure safety. Platelets, in particular, go through an additional illumination process before being stored and prepared for hospital delivery.

Because platelets have such a short shelf life, only about a week, they move quickly. In this story within only 36 hours, Dylan Frost’s first platelet donation made its way through the entire process and into the hospital room of Marqual McCurdy, a young man battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma. That single donation helped McCurdy receive the transfusion he needed to continue his fight, and he left the hospital able to go home.

As McCurdy shared, “If it wasn’t for them, I would not be here. Without their blood or their plasma, I would not be here. I would not be on this Earth anymore. So I’m very grateful for everyone who’s ever donated.”

Every unit of blood or platelets has a story like this. It’s not just a donation, it is saving a life!

Read the full story here: Follow the Blood: What happens after you donate?