When you make a donation through the apheresis process, you give one specific component of the blood, most often platelets.

Platelets are cell fragments in the blood that enable blood to clot. Cancer and chemotherapy treatments can affect the body's ability to produce platelets. Patients with leukemia, aplastic anemia, those receiving chemotherapy or undergoing bone marrow transplants often rely on platelets donated by healthy volunteers to prevent life-threatening bleeding.

Once donated, this living gift must be transfused to a patient within five days. To assure that platelets are always available, and that each patient will receive the platelets that are the best match, platelet donations are needed every day. On occasion, donors are also needed to give plasma or infection-fighting white cells (called granulocytes) through the apheresis process.

Blood Donation vs. Platelet Donation
Although a small amount of platelets are present in a whole blood donation, it takes approximately five whole blood donations to yield as many platelets as a single apheresis donation. Enough platelets are given in one apheresis donation to help one or even two hospital patients.

How to Give This Special Gift
First, call us at 1-800-GIVE LIFE and talk with one of our trained apheresis staff.

They will schedule an appointment for you at the Philadelphia, Willow Grove, or West Chester donor center. Set aside three hours for the whole process -- registration, health history, the donation and refreshments. You can schedule your appointment for early morning, evening or even for on the weekend, whatever is most convenient. Free parking is available at all apheresis centers.

The donation itself takes approximately 90 to 120 minutes. During this time, you can sit back in a specially contoured chair, relax, watch a movie or listen to music. While you relax, a small portion of your blood (less than one pint at a time), is drawn from your arm and passed through a highly sophisticated cell-separating machine which collects the platelets and returns the rest of your blood components to you. Your blood passes through a sterile, disposable kit that is used once -- for you -- and discarded. Your blood never touches the machine.

After the donation you can resume your normal activities, avoiding heavy lifting or strenuous exercise that day.

If you are an apheresis donor, you can still make your regular whole blood donation. Both gifts are vitally important to patients with life-threatening diseases.

Safety
Apheresis donations are safe. You cannot get AIDS, or any other disease, from making an apheresis donation.

Does it hurt? Only for a second. Like a regular blood donation, after the initial insertion of the needle, there is no discomfort.

It is safe to donate platelets, granulocytes and plasma. Healthy people have an ample supply of platelets and your body begins to replace the donated platelets immediately.

Benefits
One apheresis donation provides as many platelets as five whole blood donations would provide. Your donation will be tissue or HLA-typed (Human Leukocyte Antigen), and carefully matched to a patient. This is the same typing which is used to match bone marrow donors with patients.

For More Information
For more information about becoming an apheresis donor in southeastern Pennsylvania and south and central New Jersey, or to schedule your appointment, please call the American Red Cross us at 1-800-GIVE LIFE and select Option 3. Appointments are required.

For more information about the Platelet Ambassador Program, please click here.

Click here to find a mobile platelet donation bus in your community. 

Click here for a list of donor centers.