DES MOINES, Iowa — The Tuesday following Thanksgiving is dedicated to giving back to your community.
Blood banks commonly see a high turnout on Giving Tuesday, but this year, many donors are there to replenish more than just blood supplies.
They’re there to help the state stock up on convalescent plasma, one of the few FDA approved treatments for COVID-19.
Jill Featherstone, who lives in Des Moines, donated convalescent plasma for the second time Tuesday.
Featherstone and her husband both got COVID-19 in October.
Featherstone said she just felt achy, had a headache and lost her sense of taste and smell, but her husband had a much more severe case.
"He went into the hospital at midnight on a Saturday, the emergency room was super busy but they took him right back into a room,” Featherstone said. “Sunday by noon, he was being given plasma with antibodies and remdesivir and he immediately turned a corner."
After getting better, Featherstone decided she needed to donate the lifesaving product used to help her husband recover.
"I was already telling him, ‘Make sure when you get out of the hospital you ask when you can donate plasma because this is super important to do,’” Featherstone said.
LifeServe Blood Centers are the only donation sites where donations go directly to patients at central Iowa hospitals.
"We've seen a lot of Iowans step up and want to donate convalescent plasma in the last couple weeks which has been great, but really what we're collecting now is still steady with what is being used," said Danielle West, director of marketing and public relations at LifeServe.
If you’ve recently recovered from COVID-19, consider rolling up your sleeve to help save a life.
The antibodies needed to make convalescent plasma are only in your system for 60-90 days after recovering from COVID-19, so if you’re interested in donating, West suggests getting in soon after recovering.
How to donate convalescent plasma
Only two blood centers in Iowa send convalescent plasma directly to patients in Iowa hospitals.
Both centers have several locations throughout the state.
To be eligible to donate, you must have been diagnosed with COVID-19 through a diagnostic test or by a physician or have tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies.
At LifeServe Blood Center, in most cases, you can donate convalescent plasma every seven days up to four times in an eight week period.
You have to be symptom-free for 14 days to donate, but after that, LifeServe recommends going in as soon as possible.
That is because your antibody count is highest at that point. Those antibodies may go away after 60-90 days. Once they're gone, you can't donate anymore.