Michigan hospitals are running out of convalescent plasma. That's collected from blood donors who have COVID-19 antibodies and may help others who are critically ill with the virus.
But Versiti Blood Centers of Michigan says it can't meet demand as the number of new cases rises rapidly. Doctor Dan Waxman is its senior medical director:
"If we keep going like this, we're going to have to start backordering patients where, an order comes in from a hospital for a patient today, and we have to tell them, 'Okay, we're not going to be able to fill this today.'," said Waxman. We have to wait a couple of days until we get these products collected and produced."
Waxman says that's a serious problem because plasma therapy works best if it starts right away.