Bhubaneswar: VIMSAR freezer glitch, plasma collection hit
SAMBALPUR: Plasma collection has been badly hit at the Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Burla, as the refrigerator meant for storage of plasma at the hospital’s plasma bank has been lying defunct. Official sources said the bank was inaugurated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik on August 5. However, the plasma storage refrigerator became defunct on October 20.
Associate professor of the department of transfusion medicine of VIMSAR C R Prasad said, “We have already intimated the firm that installed the refrigerator and asked them to repair the freezer at the earliest. We have also intimated our higher authorities,” he said.
According to an official of the bank, the plasma units are stored below -80 degree Celsius. There were around 30 plasma units in the freezer when it went out of order. Those plasma units were immediately stored in another designated freezer used for storage of blood and blood products. Around eight hospitals of the district of Sambalpur, Bargarh, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh and Bargarh depend on the VIMSAR plasma bank for supply of plasma units used in plasma therapy to cure Covid-19 patients.
Prasad said around 12 plasma units were being collected daily at the plasma bank in VIMSAR here. Similarly, around 10 plasma units were being given to different hospitals for plasma therapy. “We have been managing the situation with the plasma units, those were collected before the ultra low temperature freezer went out of order. However, if the freezer, where the plasma units were being stored, is not repaired within 2 to 3 days, we will face severe problems,” he said.