If you already had an appointment to donate platelets or whole blood this week, the American Red Cross urges you to keep that commitment to give. The donation itself takes approximately one and a half to two hours and fifteen minutes. During this time, you can sit back in a specially contoured chair, relax, watch movies or listen to music. While you relax, a little of your blood, less than one pint at a time, is drawn from your arm and passed through a highly sophisticated cell-separating machine which collects the platelets and returns the rest to you. Your blood never touches the machine.
Platelets prevent bleeding.
Cancer patients who are receiving chemotherapy rely on platelets. Red cells carry oxygen. Patients with leukemia, other cancers, surgical patients, sickle cell patients and accident victims need these blood products. The American Red Cross provides lifesaving blood, and medical and laboratory services to more than 100 hospitals in southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey thanks to volunteer blood donors and volunteer blood drive sponsors.