He just keeps giving

An hour and a half strapped to a chair would leave most people grumpy, or at least bored. But Steve Morse stayed energetic and talkative Tuesday as a needle slid into his arm and every drop of blood in his body filtered through a machine that separated about two pints of platelets out of his blood. Morse wasn't nervous; this was the 300th time he'd been in the donor chair to give blood, plasma or platelets.

"A lot of people don't know about platelets, and they don't want to sit here for that long," he said. But Morse drives from his home in Benton, Mo., to the American Red Cross blood collection center in Cape Girardeau every two weeks to donate platelets.

Platelets are one of three blood components a person can donate. They serve as the clotting agent in blood and are used most often for cancer patients, bone marrow transplants and emergency room injuries.

Morse has been donating blood since 1969 and began donating platelets in 1975 when he found out how much they are needed and how infrequently they are donated.

"Inside of me I know I helped possibly save someone's life," Morse said, tapping his chest with his right hand. "That's a wonderful feeling."

The other hand was confined to the left arm of the chair with needles and tubes running blood from his arm through a machine that separated the platelets.

A platelet donation takes between an hour and half to two hours. The blood is taken through a process called apheresis. Platelet donations take longer because the blood is run through a centrifuge to separate the needed component and then it is cycled back into the body. That separated component could be plasma, red blood cells or platelets.

Before apheresis, lab technicians took whole blood donations and then sent it to a lab that separated it into the different parts. The problem with that process is the platelets have to be separated within two hours of the donation to be eligible for use in transfusions, said Kelly Ressel, donor recruitment account manager with the American Red Cross in Cape Girardeau.

The blood often would be needed in St. Louis, and the trip was risky.

"If it doesn't make it up there in time, they can't use it," Ressel said. The platelets can still be used for research and lab work, but not for blood transfusions.

Apheresis also provides enough platelets for an entire transfusion from one donation. The old method used several different donations of whole blood to obtain one unit -- equal to one pint -- of platelets.

Ressel said individuals' platelet counts differ and it was impossible to estimate how many pints of whole blood it would take to gather one pint of platelets. Apheresis produces "single-donor platelets."

"That helps with the patient receiving it. They have less chance of getting a reaction to the donation," Ressel said.

"Every blood cell is an allergen, and your body recognizes that," said Dr. Charles Pancoast, an emergency room physician with Saint Francis Medical Center. Allergic reactions can vary from a fever or rash to hives.

Pancoast said platelets are used on a daily basis in the emergency room.

"So many people are on blood thinners," he said. People are admitted to the ER with an injury, and the doctors have to act fast to stop the bleeding.

"The quickest way to do that is thicken their blood," Pancoast said.

"In the hospital, not a day goes by that we don't use them," he said. "Because of these newer medicines, we have to use them a lot more."

Ressel said 60 percent of the population is eligible to give platelets, but only 15 percent of those people donate.

Most of the time, Morse is a "double-platelet donor," meaning he gives two pints in one sitting. Morse estimates he has given at least 225 pints of platelets in the 32 years he has been donating.

"I can't tell you how many lives his donations have touched," Ressel said.

Platelets can be given every 72 hours, but only 24 times a year. Ressel said that's only a precaution and that platelets begin to regenerate immediately.

"You leave and you may not feel as off as you would with a regular donation," she said.

The center limits platelet donors to once every two weeks.

"Just to give them time to let their iron build back up," she said. Blood can never be given if a donor's iron is low.

"I'm sure [Morse] has been keeping his iron up. This is important to him," Ressel said.

Low iron has never been a problem for Morse. The only problem he sees possible is the nurse not being able to find a vein, which could happen if too much scar tissue builds up or if the vein bloats.

"I'm going to continue until I can't get here anymore," Morse said. "And then they can come get me."

charris@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246