A stroke of fate brought Salzburg’s Marco Schreiner to donate blood plasma. Now he wants to give something back to the sick.
In the plasma donation center in the city of Salzburg, everyone knows the face of Marco Schreiner. He has been entering the house on Paracelsusstraße almost every week for decades – and next year is expected to donate his blood plasma for the thousandth time. His motive is actually a rather dramatic story. “I had a serious car accident in 1995, was in the hospital for four years after that and needed a lot of blood and plasma donations myself,” he says. Blood plasma is the basis of many life-saving medicines. “80 percent of people need a plasma donation at some point in their lives,” explains center director Elisabeth Maier. The people of Salzburg donated their blood plasma a little over 33,000 times this year – thousands less than before the pandemic. “That’s why we’re looking for donors. The more people agree, the more sick people we can help with the plasma products,” explains Maier. There is also a bonus system for frequent donors. A healthy adult between the ages of 18 and 60 can donate their plasma about 50 times a year. Marco Schreiner converts the money he earns into memories every year: “I put the expense allowances in an account and we use that money to go on vacation every year. This year we went on a cruise!” he says.
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