Does anyone know if there is another company in the U.S. that distributes the plasma thawing devices, i.e. microwave? We have been wanting to order two more (we currently have one), but there is an FDA hold up on it right now for the device that comes from Canada. It has something to do with paperwork, nothing to do with the device itself!

We have the ArkBio microwave. I thought it came from Florida....but I could be wrong.

We got caught up in the FDA issue over two years ago.  We had a microwave on order for over a year.  We finally got one from the distributor in Florida but it was a demo model.  I think that is the only distributor in the US and the manufacturer in Canada has submitted the paperwork to the FDA but it has not yet been approved.  Since our demo model was manufactured prior to the changes it was acceptable for use and FDA approved.  Good luck.  We actually contacted the manufacturer in Canada and were in discussions with them.  Perhaps they have more information on the FDA hold up.  We do like our microwave plasma thawer and it has been a cost saver.  We were thawing plasma and discarding it just so it would be available for the ED.

We had one about 25 years ago, it was great because it was fast.  it was terrible when a bag broke.  It truly cooked the plasma, it looked like scrambled eggs when you opened it and the smell was horrible.  I'll stick with the water bath.

The microwave's have improved since 25 years ago.  They now have safe guards that automatically shut down if the temperature in the bag increases too much to avoid the cooking aspect.  The temperature is monitored constantly throughout the thawing process to ensure it never gets to high.