Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

While many have heard of donating blood, donating plasma is still a relatively next concept. Some people still believe that donating blood and plasma are one and the same, and while both have you sitting in a chair hooked up to a machine, they are different processes with different purposes. When people think of blood donation, they are typically thinking of whole blood donation. Whole blood donations include all four blood components–red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma and are used to treat blood loss, typically due to injury or surgery. In contrast, when donating plasma, the straw-colored part of your blood, only that one part is collected with the other three parts of your blood returned to the donor. Plasma is used to create different therapies to help replace missing, deficient, or malfunctioning proteins in individuals with serious, often life-threatening diseases, such as hemophilia and primary immunodeficiency. The speaker will explain further and make clear that right now, there