San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Pair of ‘super donors’ keep on giving
Realtors who recovered from virus have donated plasma multiple times to help others heal
As a successful residential Realtor in San Antonio, Dina La Rocca Murphy knows a winning idea when she sees one.
So when Murphy found out she could donate her blood plasma to help people suffering from COVID-19 — as she did in late March before completely recovering — she decided to go all in.
The San Antonio native is what’s known as a “super donor.” She’s given her plasma seven times to date, multiple bags of the antibody-rich fluid that has been transfused into more than 20 patients being treated for the disease at area hospitals.
The treatment is called convalescent serum therapy, and it’s been around for over 100 years. Research shows that giving a sick person the blood plasma from a person who has recovered from the same disease can help them heal, by conveying “passive immunity.”
Antibodies are created in a person’s blood when their immune system attacks and kills the infection.
Since COVID-19 is so new and unknown, researchers are conducting a nationwide study to see if plasma antibody treatment can help sufferers recover. Preliminary results have been promising.
Researchers want to see whether the data backs up the anecdotal observations of doctors treating patients in hospitals; the doctors say the plasma seems to help, said Dr. Samantha Gomez Ngamsuntikul, associate medical director for BioBridge Global, the parent company of the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center.
The center is collecting and providing blood plasma to some 20 hospitals in San Antonio as part of the Food and Drug Administration study, Ngamsutikul said.
If plasma does turn out to be a super treatment, that would seem to make Murphy, 61, something of a superhero.
“I thought, ‘Well gosh, what a great way to help and give back,’” she said on a recent afternoon at the center, resplendent in Kendra Scott earrings and a polka-dot dress. “How cool that I could help somebody who is really sick.”
Murphy is actually part of a super duo: Her husband,
Brian Murphy, 59, also recovered from COVID and has given his plasma three times.
How the couple, married for 16 years, got sick from
COVID is a mystery. They hadn’t traveled to any coronavirus hot spots. Hadn’t spent time with anyone who ended up getting sick.
Brian, a former CIA employee who now works alongside his wife as a Realtor — their Coldwell Banker business card reads “The Murphy Team” — says it could’ve happened at any time during their normal course of business.
“We’re always in and out of houses, meeting with lots of clients,” he said.
In any case, Brian became ill first, in early March. He thought he just had his usual seasonal sinus infection — head congestion and fatigue, but no fever or cough. He went to an urgent care center, where the physician agreed and gave him antibiotics.
Since he didn’t have any of the symptoms, he wasn’t tested for the coronavirus.
The antibiotics didn’t help. He went back and got other medicine, which didn’t help either. Then, in late March, Dina came down with a fever. After five days, she, too, went to the urgent care center, where she was tested for strep throat, the flu and COVID-19.
Two days later, she got the call: COVID.
For the last four days of her illness — at which point Brian was feeling better — Dina couldn’t get out of bed, could barely eat. Unlike many COVID sufferers, she not only didn’t lose her sense of smell — it got sharper. Brian’s cooking could trigger waves of nausea. The only medicine that helped was Tylenol, for her headache.
Dina and Brian were each sick for about 14 days; neither had to be hospitalized. They both were back in action when Dina started seeing TV ads about becoming a plasma donor at the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center.
When she went in to have her blood checked for the presence of antibodies — they were there, lots of them — Brian suggested the staff check his blood, too, even though he was never formally diagnosed with COVID.
Sure enough, he had the antibodies, too.
Thankfully, Dina said, contact tracing showed that not a single client they’d met with during their contagious period, including a pregnant woman, has gotten sick.
Giving plasma is a cinch
Since then, the Murphys have shown up once a week or so at the blood bank’s plasma donation station — a big, sleek van at the back of the facility — to spend an hour or so giving plasma.
Doing so is a cinch, they said. The needle used is smaller than that employed for a traditional blood donation, and the staff are the “best pokers in town,” Dina quips.
A centrifuge separates the golden plasma — its hue gives it the name “liquid gold” — while the donor’s red blood cells and platelets are returned to the body. You get to watch a movie while donating. You get a warm blanket put on you if you get too chilly. Afterward, you get snacks and Gatorade.
The nationwide convalescent plasma study, sponsored by the Mayo Clinic, involves more than 100 hospitals, Ngamsuntikul said. So far, 93 donors have stepped up in San Antonio since early April, she said.
A donation of almost 1,000 milliliters — about one quart — of plasma can provide treatment for five patients, she said, and not just the antibodies but also the proteins and clotting factors.
“This can help fight infection in those sufferers who’ve not have time to build up their antibodies,” she said. “The hope is to help them get off the ventilator and out of the hospital.”
How much plasma a single person can donate at any one time depends on their size and gender, Ngamsuntikul said.
“For the most part, people give three to four units for each donation” she said.
Donors can come in every four days, but they must be checked each time to ensure that their level of antibodies — as well as the amount of protein in their blood — is high enough to reach a therapeutic threshold. Antibodies go down naturally over time, Ngamsuntikul said, peaking at about day 28, then subsiding, since the body is no longer fighting off infection.
That Dina, a petite 5 feet 1 inch, has been able to donate seven times, and that her antibody levels continue to remain robust, makes her a bit atypical, even among this distinctive group of donors.
“She’s very special,” said Ngamsuntikul. (Dina, a graduate of Lee High School, theorizes that she’s an excellent super donor because she’s healthy, eats well and takes no medication.)
Because a recovered person’s antibody levels drop over time, the center needs more plasma donors. To find other willing subjects, it is providing free antibody testing through Aug. 31 to all blood donors. Those who test positive will be encouraged to give plasma.
Eligible donors must be completely free of coronavirus symptoms. The antibody test doesn’t test for the virus itself.
Beyond plasma, the center needs blood donors. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, it has had to cancel almost
200 blood drives, which would have generated almost 6,000 donations, officials said. The center has only a two-day supply of blood in its inventory.
In addition to snacks and Gatorade, plasma donors receive a $10 H-E-B gift card each time they donate. On a recent day, Dina realized that she had $60 worth of the cards stowed in her purse.
But that’s not why she and Brian do it.
“It’s just a blessing, to be able to donate,” she said. “It feels good in my heart to help someone, and I’m going to keep doing it as long as I can.”
She and Brian will never know the identities of the patients they potentially help. She said she learned that her first donation went to a hospital in Lubbock. The rest have remained in San Antonio.
Brian, a former longtime Little League umpire, read about a local Little League coach who became ill with COVID. He likes to think his plasma ended up helping him get better.
They recommend anyone who has recovered to think about rolling up their sleeves.
“It doesn’t take much time out of your day, and it feels so rewarding,” Dina said.
“It doesn’t take much time out of your day, and it feels so rewarding.”
Dina La Rocca Murphy