Jastrzebska Spólka Weglowa S A : Success of the St. Barbara’s Day dr

Success of the St. Barbara's Day drive 30-11-2020

600 donors, 190 liters of blood and 56 liters of blood plasma, is the result of a two-day St. Barbara's Day campaign organized jointly by JSW and the Regional Blood Donation and Treatment Center in Racibórz.

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photo: Dawid Lach

Every year at this time miners celebrate the St. Barbara's Miner's Day. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the crowded celebrations and beer festivals have been canceled. Instead, the miners decided to take part in the blood and blood plasma donation drive.

- We can always count on miners, especially now, during the pandemic. I believe that we should always help the sick and the needy. I went through Covid and new I would like to do my part to help others - says Łukasz Gałuszka, an electrician from the Borynia Section.

The two-day event was a great success. 190 liters of blood and 56 liters of blood plasma was collected. Overall, 1658 people participated in the blood drives carried out since July this year (including the campaign organized by NSZZ 'Solidarity'), donating 568 liters of blood and 102 liters of blood plasma.

- Because of the current restrictions, we cannot celebrate St. Barbara's day as we do every year, but we give testimony to our engagement and pro-social attitude - emphasizes Artur Dyczko, JSW's VP for Technical and Operational Matters who also heads the Company's Crisis Management Team. - I am really glad to see such a great response to our campaign; we always help where there is such a need - the JSW Vice-President adds.

The main goal of the campaign was to collect the largest possible quantity of recovered patients' blood plasma, which will be used to treat Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms among others in the hospital in Jastrzębie. Physicians emphasize that plasma transfusions from recovered patients is a well-established method, known for many years now. So far, the method was successfully used for the treatment of patients infected with the EBOLA virus, the SARS (SARS-CoV) coronavirus, the flu A (H1N1) virus and the A 'bird' flu (H5N1) virus.

- The main goal of the therapy is to passively increase the volume of antibodies in the patients' blood. The antibodies in the plasma are to support the process of eliminating the virus from the organism of an actively infected patient. At present, the legal basis for plasma transfusions in Poland is the so-called 'treatment experiment' - explains Barbara Sosna, physician and internal medicine specialist heading the Hospital Infection Control Team at the Voivodeship Specialist Hospital No. 2 in Jastrzębie-Zdrój. - We have been performing transfusions of plasma from recovered patients, with positive results, since October 28th. On that date, we received an approval from the Bioethical Commission to use blood plasma for treatment of our patients.

The St. Barbara's Day blood and plasma drive was supported by the members of Polish parliament, including senator Ewa Gawęda and MP Grzegorz Matusiak, both of whom donated blood.

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