Nine out of every ten public donations in the Balearic Islands in 2024 have been made at the Hospital Can Misses
The Health Area of Ibiza and Formentera once again takes the lead, this year 2024, in the donation of umbilical cord blood in the Balearic Islands.
Thus, from the Delivery Room Unit, the midwives of the Hospital Can Misses, with the coordination of the gynaecologist Pilar García León, have managed in 2024 to surpass the historical data of recent years and once again continue to lead the donation of umbilical cord blood in the Balearic Islands, with 60 donations, before the end of this year.
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Umbilical cord blood from Can Misses Hospital will save a life in a bone marrow transplant
This means, in addition to reaching a historic figure, increasing the excellent data of last year by 17.6% and going from 51 donations in 2023 to 60, for the moment, this year.
Thus, the 60 umbilical cord blood donations at Can Misses Hospital represent 89.5% of the donations made in the Balearic Islands as a whole, which at the moment registers 67 donations.
The Blood and Tissue Bank has recorded 67 donations – 60 voluntary and 7 directed – so far in 2024, before the end of the year. Voluntary donations can be used for any compatible person who needs it, and directed donations are destined for a direct relative who, due to their illness, requires it. This is currently possible in public donation banks.
Of the 67 donations in the first eleven months of 2024, 60 have been made at Can Misses (all of them voluntary), three at Son Llàtzer University Hospital (two voluntary and one directed), another three at Son Espases University Hospital (all three directed) and one voluntary at Mateu Orfila Hospital in Menorca.
These extraordinary results can be explained by the impetus given in 2019 by Dr. Pilar García León, gynaecologist and coordinator of the Umbilical Cord Blood Donation Programme, and the committed work of the team of midwives at Can Misses Hospital.
The Balearic Umbilical Cord Blood Donation Programme is coordinated by the BSTIB Tissue Bank and the maternity units of the hospitals. In each centre, an obstetric coordinator and a midwife coordinator are responsible for the programme. The maternity units of the Balearic Islands currently participating are those of the Hospital Universitario Son Espases, Hospital Universitario Son Llàtzer, Hospital Can Misses and Hospital Mateu Orfila.
Donations obtained at the centres in Mallorca are sent daily to the Tissue Bank where, after a selection and validation process, they are sent to the Barcelona Cord Blood Bank for processing, conservation and distribution. In the case of the Can Misses Hospital in Ibiza and the Mateu Orfila Hospital in Menorca, donations are sent directly to the Barcelona Cord Blood Bank. This umbilical cord blood collection programme in collaboration with Catalonia began in 2004 and is called the Concordia Programme.
A bone marrow transplant will be used from a public donation of umbilical cord blood made in 2017 at Can Misses Hospital.
The umbilical cord blood donated altruistically by Laura Moya when she gave birth in 2017 in the delivery room of the Can Misses Hospital will be used to save a life in a few days. This umbilical cord blood has been selected because it is compatible with a bone marrow transplant process.
Currently, the main use of umbilical cord blood is in transplants, which can be indicated for patients suffering from certain congenital or acquired bone marrow diseases, such as acute or chronic leukaemia.
Cord blood donations are essential for bone marrow transplants in leukaemia patients as it contains so-called blood stem cells, which are specialised in the renewal of all blood cells (red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets).
Nowadays, transplants are carried out with umbilical cord blood, bone marrow or peripheral blood from a donor.
The altruistic and public donation of umbilical cord blood means that all the cords that arrive at the Balearic Islands Blood and Tissue Bank are available to be used in the transplant of any compatible patient who needs it.
The public blood banks offer the possibility of storing umbilical cord blood in a targeted manner and for the exclusive use of a family member (sibling of the donor, mother or father) who suffers or has suffered from a disease that needs to be treated with this unit. Directed storage does not entail any financial cost for the donor and is reserved for the exclusive use of that recipient. Whenever there is a medical indication established by a specialist to conserve the cord for another member of the family with a specific illness (directed donation), this can be done in a public bank with the same guarantees as when the donation is made for third parties, but storing it for their own family.
The coordinator of the programme in the Ibiza and Formentera Health Area, Dr. Pilar García León, stresses the safety of this process for the baby and the mother and reminds us that the blood collection is done after late cord clamping, as recommended by the World Health Organisation. In this sense, she states that ‘it is a very simple process, which guarantees the safety of the patient, which poses no risk to the mother or the baby, in which the umbilical cord is sectioned, a simple puncture is made while the placenta is still in the uterus and the blood contained in the cord is collected in a specific bag for this purpose’.
For Tina Sagardoy, supervisor of the delivery room, ‘it is a great satisfaction for the team of midwives to lead the donation of umbilical cord blood for another year, to continue to grow in our data, and to see in the altruistic generosity of Laura Moya and all the mothers who decide to donate cord blood, in an altruistic way, how this simple and safe gesture saves lives’.
Doctor Raquel Gascón, head of the Obstetric Section of the Can Misses Hospital, expresses her gratitude for the ‘drive and the commendable work and dedication of the umbilical cord blood donation team, from the coordinator, Doctor Pilar García León, to all the midwives, nursing care technicians, orderlies, technical, logistics and cleaning staff, who make these great results possible’.
For his part, Dr. Javier Calvo, technical director of the Balearic Islands Blood and Tissue Bank, highlights ‘once again this year the involvement of all the staff at Can Misses, which has been a determining factor in achieving not only the highest quantity but also the best quality of the cord blood collection programme’.