Plasma treatments show promise after two recover at Westerly Hospital

WESTERLY, RI (WLNE) -It’s a sign of hope against COVID-19 at Westerly Hospital after two patients went from being on a ventilator to making full recoveries after receiving convalescent plasma treatments.

Three patients were initially given the treatment. The two who recovered began making progress just a couple of days after receiving the blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients.

Yale-New Haven Health, Westerly Hospital’s parent company, is participating in a nationwide clinical trial overseen by the Mayo Clinic.

The third passed away. All three had underlying health issues before being diagnosed and were on ventilators, according to Dr. Mudassar Khan, Chief of Hospital Medicine at Westerly Hospital.

“One of them recovered amazingly well. He went home from the hospital. He didn’t even have to go to Rehab. He went home,” Khan said. “Maybe we gave it too late to the last patient who didn’t make it. Maybe if we gave it a little bit earlier in the course it would have been better”

The second man who recovered is still in the hospital and is the hospital’s only COVID-19 patient as of Friday.

As for how the treatment works, doctors believe that the blood plasma of patients who recovered could potentially contain antibodies that defeat the virus.

“When somebody gets the COVID infection and they recovered, that means they formed some sort of immune or antibody response to it,” he said. “We wait 28 days for them being completely symptom-free then we can take their plasma.”

Historically, plasma treatments have shown promise as they were used to fight certain diseases, such as Ebola, SARS, and MERS.

“It was used in the Spanish Flu back in 1918 as well. So we do have some evidence that it could possibly work,” Khan said.

Despite the promising results, Khan and his team cannot say for sure if the rapid recoveries were a direct result of these plasma treatments.

“We gave them every single thing that we knew could have any sort of benefit. And one of them worked but we cannot pinpoint exactly what it is,” he said.

The hospital uses the treatment as something of a last resort for patients. The sickest of patients who meet the protocols will undergo the treatment.

“Hopefully we won’t have to use this anymore, knock on wood. But if we do we are still in the program and we will continue transfusing whenever we can,” Khan said.

However, the problem for the hospital is that if they needed to continue with treatments they need plasma, as the supply is limited.

The plasma used to treat those patients were supplied by individuals out of New York.

“It’s very very limited. And how it’s working right now it’s basically volunteering donation,” he said. “If we have more plasma available to treat more patients I think our outcomes will be better overall.”

Any recovered COVID-19 patients who want to donate plasma can contact the Rhode Island Blood Center.