In 1938, Charles Drew, an African-American resident at Columbia University Hospital, recognized that separating a liquid portion from whole blood called "plasma" would make blood transfusions available on a mass scale. Transfusing plasma instead of whole blood solved problems of blood storage and eliminated the sometimes lethal danger of infusing the wrong blood type. Plasma is stored frozen and is still transfusable one to two years later.
Instructions
1. Centrifuge whole blood to separate out the plasma, which will be the yellowish liquid in the upper half of the test tube after centrifuging. Perform this step within an hour after the blood donation.
2. Do not let the plasma contact unclean surfaces during handling before freezing. Glass containers should all be washed before contact.
3. Freeze the plasma within eight hours after its donation.
4. Store the plasma in a freezer between 10°F and -20°F (-12°C and -30°C).
Plasma freezers are manufactured to store at a lower temperature than blood banks, which maintain a temperature of around 4°C. Long-term freezing should be between -30°C and -40°C.
5. Wrap the bags in bubble wrap and keep a plate of dry ice on top of a stack of them.
These are preventive measures, to slow thawing if the freezer fails.
6. Avoid thaw-freeze cycles. For example, when the plasma needs to be transported, pack it in coolers with bubble wrap and dry ice (not water ice, which melts at a temperature 79°C higher).
Tags: whole blood, bubble wrap