Blood Donation

There are fears that in the year of 2012 the United Kingdom will have a blood shortage, which may cause issues at the Olympic Games and other events, with "extra bank holidays leading to a drop in donations as most people give blood during the working week" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16338795).

Blood, after being taken from donors, is collected in plastic bags which "contain anticoagulents and other preservatives" (http://tinyurl.com/d7zfw2h). Anticoagulents are drugs used to thin out blood and stop it clotting (coagulating), therefore making it useable for transfusions. The bags that the blood is stored in have a "material that allows for diffusion of gasses permitting optimum cell preservation" (http://tinyurl.com/d7zfw2h).

Once it has been bagged and taken to where it is to be stored, it is then "tested for Hepatitis B and C, HIV as well as other infectious diseases" (http://tinyurl.com/d7zfw2h) to make sure it is fit for use. It is then "stored in a fridge for up to 42 days, or frozen for up to 10 years" (http://tinyurl.com/d7zfw2h).

This means that a huge volume of blood can be stocked. On the National Blood Service website (http://www.blood.co.uk/StockGraph/stocklevelstandard.aspx) there are a number of graphs to show the stocks that are donated daily and also the stocks in the whole country (except for blood held in hospitals).

So on the BBC News website there is a quote from NHS Blood and Transplant that we will need "2 million pints (1.1 million litres) of blood plus an extra supply for Olympic visitors" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16338795).

HRH Prince Phillip left Papworth Hospital yesterday morning and is home with his family.

HRH Prince Phillip

The news came out today that HRH Prince Phillip, The Duke of Edinburgh, has had a stent put into his coronary artery (the artery that takes blood to the heart muscle) due to a blockage and had caused him chest pains, known as angina.

He was flown to Papworth Hospital which is a specialist cardiothoracic hospital. This means that it deals with "diagnosis and management of surgery in conditions of the heart, lungs and oesophagus" (http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk).

Now, a stent is a "small mesh tube used to treat narrow or weak arteries" (http://tinyurl.com/c26r4wl).

So what this stent effectively does is keeps the arteries open so that blood flow to the heart is restored, this is known as “angioplasty" (http://tinyurl.com/c26r4wl).

The way that this stent is inserted is by making a small opening in a blood vessel “in the upper thigh, arm or neck and then feeding a tube, with the stent lying on a deflated balloon, into the opening in the blood vessel. The doctor will then observe his movements of the stent by X-ray " (http://tinyurl.com/c26r4wl) so that he can position the stent in the right place of the coronary artery. He will then inflate the balloon in the right area, where the blockage is and the stent will be in place to keep the artery open. "Over time the cells in the artery wall will grow over the stent and it will be permanently fixed in the artery" (http://tinyurl.com/c26r4wl).

The Royal biographer; Penny Junor said, "He is an extraordinarily fit man. He takes a lot of exercise and he does an awful lot of work." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16325517). It is rather unusual for this to happen to someone who is so active, but it could be the result of a blood clot or a plaque that has formed, which is to do with the high blood pressure in the arteries. Because of the fact he is 90 could owe to the fact that his arteries are weaker, as the muscle and elasticity has become harder and not so strong.