Sofi Jahangir
Srinagar, Dec 5: One of the critical aspects for Covid-19 treatment, in the mid of crises especially for those who were infected was finding a Plasma donor.
When lockdown was imposed, there was chaos and fear among people. Covid19 cases were increasing every passing day, deaths were being reported from all over the world.
Oxygen supply felt short, ventilators and PPE Kits were discussed, those who turned Covid Positive their families had to face social stigma. Such was the situation people hardly ventured out of their homes, a speculative narrative was built that even air we breathe may be infected with virus if a Covid infected person would have crossed or travelled on road. A kind of mystical faith and belief was set all around the covid-19 by people. Though the fact stands, research and studies are still in conclusive on Covid-19 Virus.
In Kashmir situation was not far away from the chaotic scenes with strict lockdown in place and administration was on toes. But there was no respite as Covid positive cases and deaths were being reported from every nook and corner of the valley.
With no medicine and vaccine around, Plasma was widely discussed and introduced and Medical experts believed this can be helpful in reducing mortality rate. This was a breather and people had a sigh of relief.
Medical experts stated a recovered covid19 infected person can donate Plasma to a Covid infected person and that can act as cure for covid19 patient to some extent and this process was introduced in different parts of the world.
Srinagar based three collage students from Kashmir formed a WhatsApp group called “Plasma Donors Kashmir” to reach out to the people who needed the plasma.
Amaan- a founding member of the group while speaking to News Agency Kashmir News Trust said, ” It all started when one of our friend’s father got infected with covid19 and we needed the plasma donor as advised by doctors but no one was coming forward, our friend’s family and our entire friend circle circulated the message to search out plasma donor, and when finally we got a donor it was too late and our friend’s father had expired.”
“That was a shocker for us despite of hectic efforts only one donor came forward, so that was the trigger we decided to reach out to people who were in need of Plasma. We found that plasma was the need of the hour, as people were desperate to find a donor”, said Amaan.
Aitshaam- another founding member of the group while speaking to KNT said, “The challenge was to find a donor and for plasma, a donor should have recovered from COVID and should have passed the 28 days recovery period after testing negative. Most importantly, the plasma should be of high value, which means the donor should not have any co-morbidities and pass some other criteria. This was an uphill task. We are thankfully to Almighty till date we have arranged more than 350 donors and we feel very good about it.”
“The idea was to call those who were infected and who have recovered, to convince them to become a donor. But the major challenges were to get a list of patients, convince them. Once the donor would be ready we used to arrange the conference call between the donor and the family, this is how the process worked, while most of our calls turned out to be cold and were rejected on some ground. But we did not lose heart”, said Faheem
“We were three friends when we started this initiative and today we are more than 300 volunteers in group to reach out to Covid-19 patients who need plasma” they said in one voice. (KNT)