Coronavirus Latest: Jefferson Health Treating COVID-19 Patients With Survivor-Donated Blood Plasma As Part Of Clinical Trial
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Doctors in Philadelphia are getting closer to finding a potential treatment for COVID-19. Everyday, new survivors are emerging from the coronavirus outbreak.
People who recover have special antibodies in their blood that could help new patients and, eventually, become a treatment.
Richard Wells is the first coronavirus survivor to donate blood plasma at Jefferson Health, where it will be used to treat current patients as part of a clinical trial.
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"If this turns out to be a treatment, that would be fantastic," Wells said.
Wells and his wife, Maria, who live on the Main Line, don't know where they contracted COVID-19.
"Felt very ill for a good solid week, low-grade fevers, lots of body aches, tremendous fatigue," Wells said.
Once recovered and with a negative test, they were eager to help others.
"We've got to map a way out of this thing," Wells said.
Doctors say there's preliminary evidence that the treatment called convalescent plasma, could help COVID-19 patients recover.
"The theory is, plasma should have antibodies that are ready and able to fight the COVID-19 infection, so that patients who are currently sick with it will get a boost to their immune system by getting antibodies from the plasma they received," Dr. Kristin Rising, with Jefferson Health, said.
Dr. Rising is leading the trial at Jefferson.
"This has been a super exciting and emotional story, I think, for all of us. I'm an emergency medicine physician the rest of my life, so treating people in the front-line and seeing the struggles that they're having and feeling like we don't have any great treatments or we haven't had any great treatments to give aside from really supportive care, opportunities to work on projects like this are incredibly, incredibly powerful," Dr. Rising said.
"The doctors and nurses on the frontlines are putting themselves out in a big way," Wells said. "If theres anything I can do to help that, it's certainly worth it."
Jefferson is looking for more volunteers like Wells to donate plasma -- people who've recovered from COVID-19 and have a negative test. Click here for more information on the study and how you can get involved.
