The blood bank has a vital role in the running of any hospital. Blood is essential to a whole range of clinical scenarios. Think of patients with major trauma, or post-partum haemorrhage, and chronic anaemia conditions like some thalassaemia syndromes. Without the availability of blood products, clinical management would be very difficult, if not impossible.

Therapeutic apheresis is the withdrawal of whole blood from the body, separation of one or more components, and return by transfusion of remaining blood to the donor.

Errors in sample collection and processing are costly although often preventable. Getting it right is vital for the patient.

For anyone who treats haematological malignancies, myeloma is a challenging disease to tackle. It remains incurable with a relapsing-remitting pattern of illness.

A 39 year old male presented to A&E with shortness of breath, the patient had been feeling lethargic, generally unwell and short of breath for several weeks since having his AstraZeneca COVID 19 vaccine but was now short of breath when at rest and unable to walk upstairs.