Osmany Estopiñán is the largest plasma donor in Argentina to treat COVID-19

September 1, 2020

In the province of Córdoba, a Cuban man is making history today with an infinite act of love and solidarity: after recovering from Covid-19, he became the largest plasma donor to save lives in Argentina.

The "plasma super-donor in Córdoba is Cuban," notes a local television station as the front pages of some media outlets in that province echo the feat of Osmany Estopiñán Vázquez, a 50-year-old from Matanzas who settled his life in the town of Carlos Paz, where he has lived with his wife and children for a decade.

"The one who offered the most to donate his plasma is not from here, he's Cuban," emphasizes a channel while highlighting the enormous action of Estopiñán, who has already donated his blood five times. Osmany is one of only 96 people who have donated their plasma out of a total of three thousand 370 recovered cases in the province of Córdoba.

Returning from a trip abroad, he was caught off guard by the pandemic that ravages the world and he had a very hard time with it. He was hospitalized for 11 days with respiratory failure, high fever, pneumonia in his right lung. I lost my sense of smell and felt very bad, he told Prensa Latina, while warning that the virus starts with a very mild flu and can worsen in just one day.

Today he is feeling much better; four months have passed since the illness and from living an experience that he describes as intense, and now he repays the love that the doctors who treated him gave him in order to contribute his grain of sand to this battle against Covid-19 and help others survive it.

Several photos capture the moments when Osmany has extended his hand so that the workers at the Plasmapheresis Center of Córdoba can extract his blood. Today he is already almost like family in that place, where they wait for him at the San Roque Hospital in Córdoba to complete his sixth donation.

He recounts that the desire to do this arises from the will to help others, that quality and spirit of solidarity so deeply rooted in his Caribbean island.

From the moment they discharged me from the clinic I was willing to donate plasma and they called me, the idea was to give back, to try to contribute my grain of sand to help end this virus, the most one can do is be like this, as long as my parameters allow me I'm going to keep doing it, he says.

Estopiñán points out that the will to help comes in the DNA of Cubans from birth and it is seen today in the action of so many doctors from his homeland who around the world contribute their experience also to save lives from the Henry Reeve International Brigade, for whom several countries are asking that they be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work and humanitarianism.

You will always find that in us Cubans, emphasizes this man, who already has many anecdotes that encourage him to continue offering his blood to save lives, one of them being that of a 99-year-old woman who was going to intensive care.

"They gave her the zero dose of my plasma and the next day she got up. Also another man, 63 years old, who they gave two doses to and he came out of therapy, and there's a young girl, I have many stories that motivate me because I know it's something that works and can help," he emphasizes to Prensa Latina.

Converted into a star donor, many through portals and on the internet thank Estopiñán with emotional messages for his bravery, for beating the odds and fighting to save others' lives.

"When they call me, I will be there," he emphasizes, aware that each donation today is very important to prevent the terrible pandemic from continuing to claim lives.