Tacoma-based MultiCare Health System, including hospitals in Auburn and Covington, has another treatment option for patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
The Expanded Access Program for Convalescent Plasma, led by the Mayo Clinic, is for COVID-19 patients who have or are at risk of severe or life-threatening disease, according to a MultiCare news release on Monday. Patients who choose this treatment get a transfusion of plasma donated by people who have recovered from COVID-19, or “convalescents,” and have since tested negative. The donor plasma contains antibodies that can attack the virus, and early studies have shown that it may help patients recover faster.
The first three MultiCare patients to get donor plasma were treated April 18.
“We are treating those who are faring the worst first,” said Dr. Scott Meehan Jr., the program’s primary investigator for MultiCare’s Puget Sound region hospitals.