The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine has passed two Hair low-temperature freezers to the main military clinical hospital in Kyiv for the storage of blood components.
“The transfer of these freezers for the storage of donor blood components marks the opening of the upgraded transfusion department and the expedition of the Blood Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” acting Director of the Military and Medical Department at the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Vitaliy Andronaty said during a ceremony to present the equipment to the hospital in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The chief of the blood center, Anatoliy Zamkovy, in turn, said that the modern freezing equipment given to the military hospital keeps rare blood groups and plasma.
He said that the temperature of the unit falls to minus 85 degrees, and that blood can be stored for two years at minus 40 degrees, and for up to ten years at minus 80.
“One low-temperature freezer has a capacity of 600 liters, or 1,600 doses, and the other – 400 liters,” he said.
Each freezer unit costs $10,000. The equipment was purchased using U.S. government funds.
