The recent death of a 20-year-old Salt Lake County woman was unrelated to the fact that she donated plasma on the day she died, according to the autopsy.
Rather, Michelle Sue Hopkins Waddell died because she had a blood clot and a severe case of clogged arteries, South Salt Lake police spokesman Darin Sweeten said Tuesday.
The Food and Drug Administration, the Utah Health Department and police were interested in the Utah State Medical Examiner's autopsy results because of the timing of the plasma donation and Waddell's Sept. 25 death.
The center where she donated plasma is located on State Street in South Salt Lake, Sweeten said. A detective recently went to the plasma center and talked to officials about Waddell's donation.
"Everything seemed to be handled to their protocol," Sweeten said.
Area plasma donation centers hope the autopsy's conclusion will bring people back. They have experienced a decrease in plasma donations since Waddell's death was reported.
"Any negative publicity at any center affects every center," said Bryan Dayley, center director for Salt Lake City's BioLife Plasma Services, which is not where Waddell donated.
Shortly after the plasma donation, Waddell became ill at a Brickyard grocery store. Paramedics arrived on the scene, but she declined to be transported to the hospital, Sweeten said.
Waddell's husband later took her to the emergency room at St. Mark's Hospital. Citing federal medical privacy laws, the hospital's administration has not commented on her treatment there.
"She felt like she was fine and declined any treatment. They went home and went to sleep," Sweeten said.
Waddell died in her sleep.
The Utah State Medical Examiner's Office did not state why Waddell's arteries were so clogged.
"They had not seen that severe a case of clogged arteries in someone that young," Sweeten said.
Waddell's obituary, printed before the autopsy, stated she died "from unexpected complications as a blood donor."
But there is a difference in blood and plasma donation, said Judy Christensen, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross Utah Blood Services Division.
In whole blood donation, one pint of blood is drawn from an arm, Christensen said. In plasma donations, whole blood is spun in machines that separate different components of blood.
The plasma is taken and the "rest of the blood components are given back through the same arm. Sometimes it's through the other arm," Christensen said.
Plasma is sold to pharmaceutical companies, Dayley said, and used in a number of medical therapies, including for hemophiliacs, blood volume replacement, surgery and tissue healing.
The centers are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, pharmaceutical companies and the industry itself, he said.
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com