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Just a small spade: District Administrator Oliver Quilling was one of the first to donate some of their plasma. The liquid is then processed into pharmaceuticals by the company Biotest. © Strohfeldt
The Egelsbach company Stradis-Med has set up a plasma donation center. The expense allowance can be donated to a good cause.
Egelsbach – The district administrator purses his lips briefly as the needle pierces his skin. But otherwise, Oliver Quilling seems deeply relaxed on his wine-red deck chair. “The ambience here is super pleasant,” he says. The Christian Democrat is one of the first to be “tapped” in the new Egelsbach plasma donation center on Wednesday afternoon. A first for Quilling, it is his first plasma donation. The short spades at the beginning, however, is the only unpleasant thing about it: “I feel wonderful,” says Quilling and leans back.
There is a lot going on on the second floor of the office building at Boschring 12. In addition to the district administrator, other men and women are lying on the chairs and are using the official opening to donate the much-needed blood plasma right away. The center is the first of its kind in the entire Offenbach district. “There is a great entrepreneurial risk involved,” says Quilling appreciatively. “But I think it can work. Egelsbach is in the middle of the Rhine-Main area and is well connected.”
The plasma donation center is operated by the Stradis-Med company, which sells medical products and moved to Boschring in 2021. There were still a few rooms available on the floor, which is why managing director Jochen Kirschner and partner Peter Kremmers came up with the idea of setting up a plasma donation center. “This is not a matter of course for a town with 11,000 inhabitants, but we believe that there is enough potential here to attract donors and thus save lives,” says Kirschner. “Our goal is to win around 10,000 liters of plasma a year.”
The SG Egelsbach is one of three partner organizations to which you can donate your expense allowance. Oliver Herth (left), Wolfgang Schroth (front) and Michael Lama (right) are looking forward to the cooperation with the founders of the plasma center, Jochen Kirschner and Peter Kremmers (back from left). © Strohfeldt
The special moth of the donation center should help with this. This reads: “Do good twice over.” Because the donors not only donate some of their blood plasma, which benefits people with rare chronic diseases or immune defects. The Egelsbach facility also encourages its visitors to donate the expense allowance, which is 22 euros and increases with regular donations, to a good cause. The first partner organizations to choose from are the SG Egelsbach, the Förderverein Freibad Egelsbach (FVFE) and the campaign “Cancer knows no kilometers” by the Egelsbach actor and influencer Marcel Wilhelm. “No one is forced to donate their expense allowance, and of course you can also give it to another organization,” emphasizes Kirschner. District Administrator Quilling decides to give his 22 euros to the “Living Together” district foundation, “they can use it well,” he says.
Two loungers away, Kirschner’s son Niklas has made himself comfortable. There is also a needle in his left arm with two tubes attached to it, which in turn are connected to a so-called plasmapheresis machine. The machine controls the entire donation process. “A centrifuge separates the blood into its solid and liquid components,” explains nurse Anja Günther. The solid components – the red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets – flow straight back into the body, while the plasma – a golden-yellow liquid – is collected in a bag. To prevent the donor from losing too much liquid, the machine also pumps half a liter of sterile water into the arm.
The whole process is not uncomfortable. “You don’t really notice anything,” says Niklas Kirschner. In his left hand he holds a blue ball. “I have to squeeze it every ten seconds to make the blood flow better,” the young man knows. “Other than that, everything is very relaxed here,” he says and continues surfing on his smartphone.
This is how plasma donation works
Anyone wishing to donate plasma must be at least 18 years old and weigh no less than 50 kilograms. Before the first donation, visitors are given a thorough check-up by a doctor: this includes measuring the hemoglobin level, blood pressure and body temperature. After that, the examination is necessary after every 15th donation or every six months. The donation takes about 35 minutes, depending on body weight, between 650 and 850 milliliters of plasma are removed. After that, the donor can rest a bit with free drinks. The total stay is around 75 minutes. (msc)
The bags with the blood plasma are shock-frozen to minus 25 degrees, then picked up by the Dreieich company Biotest and processed into medicines. In contrast to whole blood donation, which is only recommended four to six times a year, plasma can theoretically be donated every three days. “We would like a lot of people to come to us once a week,” says Jochen Kirschner. The plasma donation center will be open on Wednesdays from 12:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on Thursdays from 1:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The goal is to be able to offer appointments five days a week at some point, says Kirschner, who has already been pushing the advertising drum with his team on social networks. They are currently already 50 to 60 percent full, “we are very satisfied with the bookings”.
Wolfgang Schroth also made a donation twice during the “soft opening” in the past few weeks – the center was already open unofficially so that the processes could be incorporated – and has already agreed on the next appointment. The chairman of the SG Egelsbach thinks that the plasma donation center is a great thing. After the sports community found out about the idea of ”doing good twice”, it didn’t take long to think about a partnership. The chairman now wants to encourage the SGE members to donate as well, after all the association can also benefit from it. Schroth thinks the atmosphere in the center is “great, there is no rush”. The donation process is relaxed, “I just take a book with me to read”. The SBU chairman has decided to come by every week. (Manuel Schubert)
Appointments at the plasma donation center, Boschring 12, can be made at 06103 30009-0 or on the homepage be agreed.
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