Young doctor from Mysuru, who recovered from Covid-19, donates plasma in Assam

A 26-year-old doctor from Mysuru in Karnataka won many hearts in Assam after be became the first person to donate his plasma on Friday for treating Covid-19 positive persons.

Lithikesh DS, who is doing his post graduation in medicine in Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) turned up to donate his plasma weeks after recovering from Covid-19. He was tested Covid-19 positive at GMCH on May 7 and was discharged on May 20. "I said yes as soon as our pathology department contacted me for plasma through my professor. After all a plasma can save someone's life," Likhitesh, who is in his 3rd year of post-graduation told DH on Saturday.

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Assam health department on Friday opened its first plasma bank at GMCH, a day after Delhi opened the country's first such facility for treating Covid-19 positive persons. Plasma therapy involves transfusion of plasma from a convalescent patient to a critical patient. Plasma of a convalescent patient contains anti-bodies which helps a critical patient to recover.

This comes when Assam, particularly the capital city Guwahati was witnessing spike in Covid-19 cases. The number of Covid-19 positive cases increased to 9799 on Friday of which 3455 were still active. A total of 14 persons have died so far. Guwahati alone reported over 1500 cases since June 15.

"By donating plasma, you may be saving the life of someone's mother, sister, father, husband, wife or only earning member of a family. So if you are a recovered patient of Covid-19, please come forward to donate plasma. It will be a great help to the society," he said.

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Lithikesh joined GMCH in 2018 after doing MBBS from Mysore Medical College and Research Institute.

Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and junior health minister Pijush Hazarika lauded Lithikesh's gesture. "Glad to share that we've started a plasma bank today and the first convalescent donor is a doctor, Covid-19 patient himself. Many gratitude to Dr. Lithikesh. I encourage other patients to come forward and donate," Sarma tweeted on Friday. This was shared by many on social media and many appreciated the gesture by the young doctor from Karnataka.

So what is a plasma? Likhitesh said, "If you remove cellular components of blood such as RBS, WBC, platlet, remaining substance is plasma. It contains anti-bodies to many infectious disseases. Antibodies are required to fight against infection."

He said it is similar to blood donation but here cellular components are removed to filter the plasma, which is rich in anti-bodies. "It takes about one hour to complete the procedure. Doctors and nurses remain with the donor during the process and there is no side effects or complications," Likhitesh said.