Convalescent Plasma being used at Sierra View

While there remains questions about the use of Convalescent Plasma (CP) in treating COVID-19, Sierra View Medical Center has been ahead of the curve when it comes to the treatment.

Sierra View staff also haven’t made a conclusive assessment of the effectiveness of Convalescent Plasma when it comes to treating COVID-19. But Sierra View staff say there’s no question Convalescent Plasma in combination with other treatments have definitely made a difference.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump made an announcement the Food and Drug Administration had granted an emergency use authorization for Convalescent Plasma to be used as a treatment for COVID-19. The authorization was based on anecdotal data from a 70,000-person program run by the Mayo Clinic.

Sierra View joined the program run by the Mayo Clinic in May and as of mid-august 30 COVID-19 patients at the hospital had received Convalescent Plasma, which is blood plasma considered to be rich with antibodies to fight COVID-19. Convalescent Plasma is donated by those who have recovered from COVID-19.

Convalescent Plasma is safe but it’s still not considered to be a proven treatment for COVID-19. Anecdotal data indicates Convalescent Plasma along with a combination of other treatments does help and Sierra View staff state that has been their experience. Sierra View staff go as far as to say Convalescent Plasma treatment has potentially saved lives.

Sierra View staff stated with so many unknowns about COVID-19 and with treatment options being limited, they looked into the option of Convalescent Plasma.

With the support from the ICU intensivist team, leaders of the department, ICU Charge Nurse Andrew Nunez invested time in researching the Convalescent Plasma opportunity with the

Mayo Clinic. It was then determined to enroll the hospital in the Mayo Clinic study.

“Convalescent Plasma is FDA approved but is considered experimental treatment so enrolling our hospital would need to be a house wide decision,” Nunez said. “Our SVMC leadership team was 100 percent on board so I started the application process right away.”

After organizing a partnership with the Central California Blood Blank to receive blood plasma and enrolling in the study, SVMC was able to begin utilizing blood plasma to help speed up the process of recovery for COVID-19 patients.

Initially plasma was only given to ICU patients, but it wasn’t long until other areas of the hospital had COVID-19 positive patients. Convalescent Plasma is given to patients who are moderately to severely ill with COVID-19. The patient must meet certain requirements to receive plasma. These requirements include: requiring high amounts of oxygen, being on a ventilator, or having low oxygen levels. “Less patients are dying since we started giving plasma,” Nunez said. “This could be due to concurrent treatment with Remdesivir and Corticosteroids or it might just be a better understanding of the disease pathophysiology.”

Remdesivir is an anti-viral medication that preliminary studies have shown reduces the recovery time from COVID-19.

“In medicine, we are constantly updating our treatment plans based on new medical evidence and approved treatments. It’s hard to say if it was just plasma or a combination of plasma and the excellent care provided by the interdisciplinary team from nurses to respiratory therapists, to physicians,” said Nunez about Convalescent Plasma’s effectiveness. “I will say that the first few patients to be discharged from the hospital after being in the ICU on a ventilator for multiple days received CP.”

For more information on Convalescent Plasma, visit USCOVIDPLASMA. ORG.

For information on donating Convalescent Plasma, visit https:// www.donateblood.org/ convalescent-plasma/