Published: November 03, 2008 04:19 pm      

Hendricks Regional Health is leader in cord blood collection

DANVILLE — — Hendricks Regional Health is working hard to find a cure.

Since early this year, the hospital’s childbirth center has been working with the Indiana Cord Blood Bank to collect and utilize cord blood that in years past was simply cast off as medical waste.

The relatively simple procedure is done immediately after delivery of a baby and the collection of the cord blood is painless and risk-free for both the mother and the child.

“Cord blood is rich with stem cells,” said Debi Driver, clinical director of donations for General BioTechnology. “People just throw it away because of the lack of education when in fact it can be a huge advantage for medical use.”

Stem cells have been studied for a number of years as a possible key to saving lives in people with a variety of blood-related diseases such as leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell anemia. Stem cells can be transplanted into an individual and the undeveloped cells can transform into other types of cells and reproduce throughout the body, Driver said.

One of the easiest and least controversial methods of collecting stem cells for transplants or research is by collecting the stem cell-rich blood from the umbilical cord at the birth of a baby.

Driver said parents can choose to bank their baby’s cord blood in a private bank for a fee, or they can donate the cord blood free of charge to the public cord blood bank. Cord blood that is donated to the bank is preserved and, based on the quality of the sample, utilized for research or transplants.

So far this year, HRH has collected more than 400 cord blood samples for the Indiana Cord Blood Bank, and is leading the state in cord blood donations.

Deb Case, director of the hospital’s Childbirth Center, said the center has about 1,000 deliveries a year.

“Over 400 donations so far this year is a big percentage,” she said. “It has been a positive outcome for patients and families and has a good end use. The staff and physicians in the Childbirth Center understand and promote the cord blood collection program. This innovative program has the ability to save lives and provide options for medical research that previously were not available. The program is normally presented in the physician offices and is re-introduced to our patients and families upon admission. We have seen an overwhelmingly positive response from our patients regarding this new program.”

The Indiana Cord Blood Bank supplies HRH with cord blood donation kits that are assembled in Hendricks County by workers at Sycamore Services.

“The birth of a child provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to preserve the cord blood,” Driver said. “Hendricks Regional Health operates with efficiency and professionalism and they truly understand the importance of utilizing stem cell-rich cord blood. Hendricks Regional Health is on the forefront in the state in collecting this life-saving resource.”

Anita Masdai, a physician at Westside Physicians for Women in Avon, was the first doctor that got involved with the cord blood program. She said she is glad there is a public blood bank.

“Private storage for cord blood costs a lot,” she said. “Private banks have been available for quite some time, although I didn’t like how there wasn’t a public blood bank.”

Masdai decided to talk to her patients about donating cord blood so it would be available to anyone who needs it. Experts also hope that more will be learned about stem cells through research and that these cells will become treatment for a wider variety of diseases in the future.

For more information on donating cord blood, call HRH at 745-3729. To receive cord blood donating kits for hospitals that don’t provide them, call Debi Driver at 506-3466.



andrea.hirsch@flyergroup.com