Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
RECOVERED COVID-19 patient donates plasma to help others.
State health secretary encourages donations to treat covid-19
SPRINGDALE — Dakota Pottridge has no problem helping, especially if it might save a life, he said.
The 28-year-old Decatur man has recovered from covid-19, which means his plasma may be used to treat patients who have the virus. He donated plasma Monday at the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks.
Dr. Nate Smith, Arkansas health secretary, encouraged recovered coronavirus patients to donate their plasma during Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s news briefing Monday.
“It is a strategy we know works for a number of infectious diseases,” Smith said.
Plasma in recovered patients might contain antibodies that could help patients, he said.
The Federal Food and Drug Administration hasn’t yet approved covid-19 convalescent plasma as a treatment, and the plasma is being regulated as an investigational product, according to the administration’s website.
Smith said during Monday’s briefing he didn’t have the number of how many recovered patients in Arkansas had donated plasma.
Pottridge started feeling like he had a cold in midMarch and initially thought it was an allergic reaction to cats, he said. He developed a cough and body aches and tested positive for covid-19. Pottridge then self-quarantined at his home.
Pottridge said he learned he could donate his plasma through his doctor and the Arkansas Department of Health.
He was the second recovered coronavirus patient to donate at the Springdale center,
said Anthony Roberts, executive director. The center is working with hospitals in Northwest Arkansas to find patients who might donate.
Northwest Medical Center-Springdale released Mirna Marquez, 48, of Hindsville last week after she spent two weeks in the hospital with covid-19. Marquez was on a ventilator. Dr. Stephen Hennigan, who treated Marquez, said she began showing signs of recovery a day or two after receiving a transfusion of plasma from a recovered patient who donated in Little Rock.
Patients must be free of coronavirus symptoms for 28 days before donating as well as meet regular donation requirements, Roberts said.
Symptoms of covid-19 include coughing, fever, shortness of breath, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and loss of taste or smell, according to a revised list from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Federal Food and Drug Administration hasn’t yet approved covid-19 convalescent plasma as a treatment, and the plasma is being regulated as an investigational product, according to the administration’s website.