St. Anthony Regional Hospital is one of a select number of Iowa healthcare facilities included in a Mayo Clinic-led nationwide study on convalescent plasma treatments for COVID-19 patients. Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kyle Ulveling, says their organization is fortunate to be able to offer this treatment.
Pathologist, Dr. Jedd Hagen, says the treatment is not necessarily new as it has been used in prior epidemics and pandemics, such as the Spanish Flu in 1918, in measles outbreaks and against SARS, MERS and Ebola. He explains that blood can be broken into two components; cellular, which includes the white and red cells and platelets, and the liquid, which is plasma.
Lab Director, Toby Steckler, says St. Anthony is on a national registry for convalescent plasma treatment. Once a patient is identified as meeting the criteria, the process, he says, is pretty simple.
St. Anthony internist, Dr. Mark Collison, says there is specific criteria used to determine who should receive the plasma.
One patient is currently being treated and two others have received the convalescent plasma at St. Anthony Regional Hospital. The two previous cases have recovered. Family Medical practitioner at the McFarland Clinic, Dr. Greg Perkins, wants to underscore how lucky the Carroll area is that Dr. Ulveling had investigated the program. He adds a colleague from medical school is running a COVID team in San Francisco, and they have only been able to administer the plasma three times, the same as has been done in Carroll. Perkins says we have to look beyond our area and wait for the end points of the study to really know how well this will work for the population. However, there were promising results with patients here after the single introduction of plasma.
The full interview with the doctors and Steckler, a link to which can be found below, goes into detail on other promising treatments for COVID-19, including the recently FDA approved Remdesivir. This is currently only being administered in one location in the state, at the University of Iowa. Steckler also stresses that in order to administer the convalescent plasma treatment, there is a need for residents who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate plasma. Those individuals can contact their provider or follow the instructions also included here about how to get more information or to schedule an appointment to donate.
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Link to the full interview with Dr. Kyle Ulveling, Dr. Jedd Hagen, Dr. Mark Collison, Dr. Greg Perkins and SARH Lab Director, Toby Steckler: https://www.1380kcim.com/episode/kcim-interview-st-anthony-covid-19-treatment-testing/
To get more information on plasma donation:
Contact Toby Steckler: 712-794-5237
Contact LifeServe Blood Center:
Phone: 800-287-4903
Online: www.lifeservebloodcenter.org
