Bonfils Blood Center on Tuesday retested 1,776 samples of blood after a technician found a rusty staple in the lid of a mixing container of the solution used to test for HIV, syphilis and other blood-borne diseases.
The blood – 12 percent of all the blood collected in December – tested negative for contaminants, said Julie Scott, a Bonfils Blood Center spokeswoman.
The blood had been sent to hospitals last week and was used in at least one transplant surgery.
Bonfils officials are conducting an internal investigation to determine why managers were not informed that the test may have failed before the blood was sent to patients, Scott said.
“The upside of all of this is that the units were safe,” she said.
The staple was found inside a sealed testing kit manufactured by Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc. Bonfils sent the kit back to Ortho for examination, Scott said.
Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics spokeswoman Mary Richardson said she was unaware of any other kits contaminated by staples.
Richardson said she could not comment on the situation until the company receives the tainted kit from Bonfils and conducts its own review.
“To my knowledge we have no prior record of this,” Richardson said.
In 2005, Bonfils the largest blood bank in Colorado, retested less than 2 percent of the 216,000 blood units donated. Ninety-seven percent of the blood collected was sent out to be used, Scott said.
Blood centers require potential donors to answer questions about their health. A sample of the blood is taken to a lab for testing before the donor’s blood is sent to hospitals or other health-care providers, Scott said.
Dr. Hannis Thompson, director of transfusion services at the University of Colorado Hospital, which gets about half of its blood from Bonfils, said he trusts the center’s screening.
“We probably got some of their (retested) blood because we get shipments on a regular basis,” Thompson said.
“If they thought there was a problem … they would likely have thrown the run out.”
Staff writer Marsha Austin can be reached at 303-820-1242 or maustin@denverpost.com.
