Blood Component Functions
By Billie Rubin, reporting from the labs of Stanford Blood Center Each blood component we make has a purpose: • Red Blood Cells – carry oxygen to the tissues in the body and are commonly used in the treatment of...
Tag Archive: blood donation
Getting to Know You
By Deanna Bolio, Communications Specialist, Stanford Blood Center Stanford Blood Center experienced a lot of change at the management level in 2012, including retirements and growing operational needs. This has resulted in quite a few new faces in the halls...
Bubble Girl: Better Screening, Treatments Offer Hope for Kids with Immune Disorder
By Erin Digitale, Staff Writer for the department of Communication & Public Affairs at the Stanford School of Medicine For most of Isabella Messina’s first year of life, people who wanted to see her had to squirt their hands with...
New HLA Antibody Testing Policy for Female Platelet Donors
TweetWe are so fortunate to have such a devoted, caring community of blood donors. Your generosity helps to save many lives, and we are grateful for your partnership. We also take our responsibility to provide our community with a safe and adequate blood supply seriously, and that is why we need to ask certain platelet donors to help us out in a different, but equally important, way: by donating whole blood instead of platelets.
Vital fluid: What We Know About Blood
Tweet
Special report from the Stanford Medicine Magazine
"Blood is a very special juice." Goethe didn't know the half of it when he penned this line for Mephisto more than 200 years ago. In those days people believed blood held mystical qualities and was a potent life force. No wonder Mephisto wants the contract for Faust's soul signed in this "special juice."
Reflecting Back
Tweet
By Harpreet Sandhu, SBC Administrator
Last year brought some significant changes for Stanford Blood Center that we can reflect back on with a sense of great accomplishment. Our hard work and collaborative efforts came along with many successes and achievements. We welcomed several new team members including three managers, two directors, one senior operations director, and one assistant medical director. In addition, we opened up a brand new donation center in Menlo Park, taking with us fond memories of our Campus center as we closed its doors.
Against the Flow: What’s Behind the Decline in Blood Transfusions?
Tweet
By Sarah C.P. Williams, Staff Writer for the department of Communications & Public Affairs at the Stanford School of Medicine
One day in 2011, an ambulance pulled up to the Stanford emergency room and paramedics unloaded a man in his 30s who had crashed his motorcycle. He was in critical condition: Tests showed dangerously low blood pressure, indicating that around 40 percent of his blood was lost. And an ultrasound revealed that the blood was collecting in his belly, suggesting that one or more of his abdominal organs was the source of the blood loss.
Giving Platelets to the Max is the Single Most Rewarding Volunteer Experience of My Life Today
TweetBy Jerry Neece, SBC Platelet Donor
All the way through school, my teachers and parents always called me a "late bloomer." While my friends got good grades, were accepted into good colleges, and excelled in other pursuits, I was always one of the last ones to "get it".
Roll Up Your Sleeve: There’s Still No Substitute for Blood
Tweet
By Jessica Shugart, Staff Writer for the department of Communications & Public Affairs at the Stanford School of Medicine
Most donors give blood only a few times a year, if that. But for Linda Johnson, it's a routine part of life. On this fall day in 2012, Johnson reclines in a comfy chair at the Stanford Blood Center, wrapped in a soft, powder-blue blanket, while two pints of blood drain from a vein in her arm. Right next to her, a machine snatches the tiny cell fragments called platelets from her blood and returns the rest of the fluid back into her vein. She's a very familiar face here: This is her 561st donation.
Blood, Sweat, and Fears: A Common Phobia’s Odd Pathophysiology
Tweet
By John Sanford, Managing Editor for the department of Communications & Public Affairs at the Stanford School of Medicine
I awoke close to midnight. It was the middle of August, in 1992, and the windows were open in the room of the Paris hostel where I was staying. The air was warm and still. My chest felt moist with - sweat? I touched the substance with an index finger and pressed it to my thumb. It felt tacky. Blood!