Rent and utilities per month, $400. Student tickets, snacks and drinks for all seven LSU home games, $125. Books, notebooks, pens and pencils for fall semester, $375. Being able to make up to an additional $200 a month – helpful.
With the financial rigors of college life, some students are donating plasma to get spare change for bills and costs.
Jenny Barker, a psychology junior, said she donated plasma two years ago to help make financial ends meet.
“I heard about it from friends in the dorm, and it sounded like a good idea,” Barker said.
Barker said she made $25 on her first trip to the plasma donation center on Nicholson Drive. Each additional trip made in the same week would net her $17, Barker said.
And while the money was very useful for Barker, she said it does have its side effects.
“I had really big bruises on my arms after one donation, and it took up too much time,” Barker said. “On my final trip I got a little woozy afterward.”
Barker said after feeling “woozy” on her final visit she decided not to donate plasma anymore.
Steven Smith, associate professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, said the injuries Barker sustained- muscle cramps, bruises on the arm and fainting – tend to be the only medical conditions associated with donating plasma.
Smith said plasmapheresis, the plasma donation process, is a similar procedure to a typical blood donation.
Plasmapheresis removes blood from the donor like any normal blood donation. Then the red blood cells are separated from the plasma using a machine, Smith said.
Two IV’s are used in plasmapheresis. One extracts the whole blood, while another IV is used to transport the red blood back into the vein after the plasma is separated, Smith said.
From there the donated plasma is used in hospitals for patients who have lost excessive amounts of blood, or patients with certain blood disorders, Smith said.
Smith said there is no desperate need for plasma right now, but there is a shortage around the holidays when people stop donating.
International BioResources, a nationwide company specializing in plasmapheresis, said on its Web site that the plasma donation process takes about two hours for a patient’s first visit and an hour for every following visit.
IBR has plasma donation centers across the country with one in the Baton Rouge area on Florida Boulevard.
The Web site also said that plasma donors must be at least 18 years of age and weigh at least 110 pounds. Individuals may donate two times every seven days, but not more than every other day.