Recovered COVID-19 patients across the country are donating blood plasma, rich in antibodies, to help those who have not yet won the battle

Someone “owes” their survival to Neide Yeste Rosales.

Neide, at 47 years of age, had never donated blood before, not even thought about it, but it would have been hard to imagine the circumstances under which she actually did. Yes, the circumstances, because today’s circumstances accentuate everything that is human and good in a gesture like this. The circumstances, the COVID pandemic, made her donation exceptionally valuable.

Neide successfully recovered from her bout with covid-19 and was the first to donate her plasma, rich in antibodies, to help those who have not yet won the battle.

And she’s not alone. Dozens of individuals across the country have voluntarily filled 600-milliliter bags with life-saving plasma, and the number is rising, because, specialists explain that the procedure has had positive results in other countries, with patients in serious condition; because it is recommended by health authorities in the region and internationally; because it is included in the Cuban treatment protocol… Plasma, but it could well be called solidarity or hope, in the face of so much death.

Neide had made recent trips to Panama and Peru, and on March 27 she tested positive for the virus. At the Luis Díaz Soto Military Hospital, or Naval Hospital, as most people call it, she recovered, as did her along her husband, who thanks God and, above all, Cuban medicine for being able to go home, with just one sad anecdote to recount.

Neide’s plasma went up to a therapy room in that same hospital. A patient, Roberto Moré, 54 years of age, who had been reported to be seriously ill, was the first to receive a transfusion. Today he is in stable condition, moved out of intensive care.

What did they give me, he asked the doctors. Plasma, I’m sure they answered; there are other words they could have used.

Neide knows all this. Her donation was employed to help save a life. She knows the pleasure she feels inside, that she has done something good, as Martí said, a feeling she finds “hard to describe.”

A week has passed since her first donation at the municipal Blood Bank in Diez de Octubre, one of three institutions in the capital accepting donations from recovered COVID patients, and she is ready to donate again, although, perhaps this time, it will not be possible to follow the exact course of her solidarity.

Eight recovered patients have donated their plasma to this bank, and joining the initiative are the provinces of Pinar del Río, Cienfuegos, Villa Clara, Sancti Spíritus and Ciego de Ávila; because if someone is rejoicing, it is all the patients in the country who have defeated the virus, under the care of Cuban medicine.

Good deeds – Martí reminds us – should be done without attracting attention; but there are some things that should not be overlooked. Life, for example, and everything that is done for life, is worth applauding.

Source: Granma