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Knowledge Centre - Lifesavers Club

Lifesavers Club

There is a need for a Core Registry of Apheresis Donors, who will be willing to be on call. This will ensure that Platelets are collected against a need, and therefore will not be wasted. Hence the creation of the Lifesavers Club. Members of the Lifesavers Club are people who have been familiarized with the process of Platelet Apheresis, and who have decided to make themselves available to assist a fellow citizen.

The LIFESAVERS CLUB is therefore a very exclusive club of committed individuals who are willing to spare a considerable amount of their time to provide life-saving Platelets to someone in need.

Instituted By

The LIFESAVERS CLUB has been instituted by the State Blood Transfusion Council (SBTC), which is responsible for all blood transfusion activity in the state of Maharashtra. The contact details of the SBTC are:
Address: 5th Floor, Ravindra Annexe Building
Dinshaw Vachcha Road, Churchgate,
Mumbai.
Tel. No.: 022-22830216
Fax No.: 022-2285xxxx
Website: www.mahasbtc.com

Coordinated By

The LIFESAVERS CLUB is coordinated by Think Foundation. Think Foundation will be responsible for creating awareness about the LIFESAVERS CLUB, registering members, receiving calls from hospitals and patients, contacting LIFESAVERS CLUB members, organizing activities exclusively for the members.

How does one become a member?

Any individual can become a member of the Lifesavers Club. The prescribed form duly signed must be submitted to the office of Think Foundation. The member also has an option of submitting the membership online.

On receipt of the membership form, the potential member will have his name added to the Core Registry. He will then be called to donate Platelets, whenever there is a need. On donating Platelets in response to a call, the donor becomes a full fledged member of the LIFESAVERS CLUB. The membership card is then sent to him/her.

How does a member donate SDPs?

On receiving a call from a patient/hospital, Think Foundation will confirm with the Blood Bank whether a donor has to be sent. A LIFESAVER will then be identified and asked to go to the Blood Bank.

The LIFESAVER may, in some cases, have to go to the Blood Bank a day prior to the donation and submit his blood sample. This will be tested for ‘Platelet Count’ and for Transfusion Transmissible Diseases. The next day he will be called to donate Platelets, which procedure will take between 60 and 90 minutes.

In some cases, the donor will have to submit his sample, wait for the results for an hour, and do the ‘Apheresis’ procedure on the same day. Thus the total time taken at the Hospital for the donor could be 3 hours.