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An inside look at the process of donating convalescent plasma with the Michigan Red Cross

Convalescent plasma donations are critical, American Red Cross says

Kim DeGiulio recently recovered from coronavirus and just like Evrod Cassimy, she decided to donate her convalescent plasma.

Doctors said her donation could save the lives of three COVID-9 patients.

Dec. 9, 2020: Michigan coronavirus cases up to 415,200; Death toll now at 10,213

DeGiulio recovered from coronavirus in October. Now that she’s symptom-free and has the antibodies, she signed up to donate her plasma with the American Red Cross. All it took was filling out a form to declare you’ve recovered from COVID, then the American Red Cross reaches out to schedule a time to donate.

READ: Kim DeGiulio shares her COVID-19 experience: ‘I invited the virus over to my house’

While the process can take a few hours out of your day and be a little uncomfortable at times, the need is extremely great right now.

RELATED: There is a critical need for COVID-19 survivors to donate convalescent plasma

“We’re currently using it as a treatment for patients who have COVID, so they receive it like a dose of medicine,” said Michigan American Red Cross CEO Mary Lynn Foster. “The convalescent plasma first goes through additional testing, so it goes through our national testing lab, and then it is dispersed throughout our network to where it is needed.”

The donation process took about 40 minutes. DeGiulio said the staff stayed with her and kept her distracted during the process.

You can watch Kim DeGiulio’s full story in the video above.

If you’ve recovered and want to know if you qualify to donate, just visit this website.


About the Authors
Kim DeGiulio headshot

You can watch Kim on the morning newscast weekdays from 4:30 to 7 a.m., and frequently doing reports on the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts.

Dane Kelly headshot

Dane is a producer and media enthusiast. He previously worked freelance video production and writing jobs in Michigan, Georgia and Massachusetts. Dane graduated from the Specs Howard School of Media Arts.

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