Howie Severino donates blood plasma to PGH after recovering from COVID-19

Howie Severino has donated his blood plasma to the Philippine General Hospital after surviving the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

In a Facebook post, the GMA News and Public Affairs pillar described the process to encourage other COVID-19 survivors to come forward and donate their plasma.

Severino shared photos of him hooked into the machine which separates the yellowish plasma from his blood.

"Surprisingly, the liquid gold as the doctors call it is that color," he said. "The med techs were coddling it like a newborn baby, and they also let me hold it like I was a mother who just gave birth."

READ: PGH calls for blood donation from COVID-19 survivors

The veteran journalist said he was donor no. 38 at PGH but the actual procedure was conducted at the UP College of Medicine, a non-hospital setting which reduces the risk of infection.

PGH is the first hospital in the country to attempt convalescent plasma transfusion for COVID-19 patients in critical condition.

Plasma from a COVID-19 survivor contains antibodies which can help other patients fight the virus.

READ: Who can donate blood to COVID-19 patients?

"That bag holds 486ml of one of the most precious substances in the world today," Severino said. "Money can’t buy it; I was assured it would be given for free to the patient most in need."

He said a committee of doctors decides who needs the plasma, but there is an ongoing debate whether it should be given only to the gravely ill or also to the moderately ill.

"That choice becomes less wrenching if more survivors donate plasma, and more patients receive it," he said.

Severino said he shared the story to assure donors that the process is "not dangerous or scary and perhaps one of the easiest ways to save a life."

As of Wednesday, the number of patients who recovered from COVID-19 reached 2,251 after the Department of Health recorded 145 new recoveries, a record-high.  —MGP, GMA News