August 4, 2011 9:29 am
Published by Stanford Blood Center
By Brooke Wilson, Communications Manager, Stanford Blood Center
You're minding your business, going about your day, even doing something good for your health by popping into the gym for a workoutthen suddenly a seizure sets in and you're on the ground convulsing, foaming at the mouth, and unable to communicate. Not only has your day taken a dramatic turnbut your life may be in jeopardy. What happens next?
August 3, 2011 4:20 pm
Published by Stanford Blood Center
Hello Stanford Blood Center donors and friends! My name is Isabel Stenzel Byrnes and I'm a social worker and health educator, currently working for the Lucile Packard Pediatric Weight Control Program. I have a twin sister named Anabel, who is a genetic counselor at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. We'd like to share our personal story with you in this blog.
July 29, 2011 3:32 pm
Published by Stanford Blood Center
By Billie Rubin
In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), Dr. Christine Cserti-Gazdewich, a hematologist at the University of Toronto, educates us on the history of blood types.
July 28, 2011 11:01 am
Published by Stanford Blood Center
By Julie Ruel, Social Media Manager, Stanford Blood Center
At Stanford Blood Center we collect several different types of blood products from our volunteer donors. All products have different functions pre- and post-donation. In other words, before and after they leave your body, they each serve different purposes. For the scope of this article, I'll focus on red blood cells (RBCs) collected during a whole blood donation and platelets collected during an ABC donation. These are the two most common products we draw, accounting for about 99% of our total donations in a year.
July 20, 2011 2:06 pm
Published by Stanford Blood Center
I will never forget how stunned I was when I got an email from Karen on March 5, 2009 to announce her sons arrival. It started "Quinn Frederick Bossow was born on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, he is in extremely critical condition at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital." I immediately visited the blog she had created to keep family and friends updated on his condition.
July 15, 2011 3:28 pm
Published by Stanford Blood Center
By Billie Rubin
Cryoprecipitate is a blood product made from frozen plasma. The plasma is slowly thawed, then sent through a centrifuge, a machine that spins and sorts blood components based on their masses. The "cold precipitate" protein that is left behind after most of the liquid plasma is removed is the cryoprecipitate.
July 13, 2011 2:24 pm
Published by Stanford Blood Center
By Deanna Bolio, Public Relations Associate, Stanford Blood Center
Fifteen-year-old Maya Israni has been around blood drives since she was no taller than the Canteen table. Today, Maya is the youngest blood drive coordinator for a community blood drive. Maya was six when her mother, Sonoo, hosted the first blood drive at Ladera Recreation District, which she did in response to the September 11, 2001 tragedy.
July 8, 2011 11:24 am
Published by Stanford Blood Center
By Billie Rubin
Red blood cells are born in the bone marrow of our large bones at a rate of 2 million every second! Our bone marrow is a heavy-duty erythropoietic ward.
July 6, 2011 2:26 pm
Published by Stanford Blood Center
By Julie Ruel, Social Media Manager, Stanford Blood Center
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is not an unfamiliar term in the blood banking world. A member of the herpes family, it is one of the many tests we perform on each unit of donated blood. For healthy individuals, having the virus, or what we refer to as being CMV positive, isn't harmful. And if healthy, unless you've specifically been tested for CMV, you most likely don't know whether you have the antibody to it or not. However, for infants or those with impaired immune systems, it can be deadly. Because of this, Stanford Blood Center routinely tests for it and was in fact, the first blood center in the world to provide CMV negative blood to hospitals for immunocompromised transfusion recipients.
June 30, 2011 9:37 am
Published by Stanford Blood Center
On Dec. 29, 2010, Linda Johnson became the first woman to make 500 donations at Stanford Blood Center. It was more than 20 years ago when Linda's friend and Stanford Blood Center platelet donor, Stan Jensen, urged her to check if she would make a good platelet donor. Linda was a perfect candidate with good veins and a high platelet count.
