Dr. John Lunetta, D.O. arrived in Las Vegas more than a year ago to help with the American Red Cross Blood Services regional expansion. For decades, the Red Cross blood supply in Southern Nevada came from other areas of the country, mostly from Idaho, Montana and Utah. But over the course of the last year and a half, the team has grown the program of blood collection to that of supplying nine of the area’s 14 hospitals.
But Dr. Lunetta’s presence here makes this program so much more than a simple blood collection service. Licensed to practice in seven western states, and eight of our local hospitals, Dr. Lunetta assists local doctors when they have questions about using Red Cross blood products. Transfusion recommendations to find the most compatible blood or questions about reactions to transfusions are all topics on which Dr. Lunetta can speak.
Dr. Lunetta also brings with him the latest in patient blood management education. His contemporary approach allows local doctors to, when appropriate; use less product resulting in less risk to patients.
But there are additional American Red Cross Blood Services here in Las Vegas not available in some other regions known as clinical services. With the medical equipment and the skilled nurses that work with Dr. Lunetta, Clinical Services can offer one-on-one patient contact delivering care through an apheresis machine, which uses centrifugal force to separate blood into its constituent components. This is a method used in the treatment of leukemia patients, sickle cell patients, and a large number of neurologic and oncology patients. Dr. Lunetta also oversees treatments involving some new technology using extracorporeal photopheresis, or ECP. In layman’s terms, it’s like a tanning bed for your blood. Due to Dr. Lunetta’s expertise, some area patients will soon be able to receive treatment here that they could only get in California previously. It’s used to treat patients who suffer from Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma in which the skin is attacked by the patient’s own T-cells. The treatment calms those cells down and the skin begins to heal. An average patient needs to receive 150 – 300 procedures once every two weeks. Another more common use of this treatment is for patients who have graft vs. host disease; usually as a result of a bone marrow transplant, or other organ transplant such as lung or heart.
Many more procedures and innovations are in the pipeline that Dr. Lunetta and his staff may be able to offer in the future and the Red Cross is pushing the development of new ways in which Blood Services can help in our community. From his involvement with donors at blood drives to his work with patients who get the blood transfused, Dr. Lunetta is involved every step of the way.
Dr. Lunetta is available for interviews for print, online, radio and television. Well-spoken and with a talent to break complex medical ideas down into language that we can all understand, Dr. Lunetta is a delightful guest and talented subject matter expert.
To book Dr. Lunetta, or to interview him on his range of expertise, please contact the office of Lloyd Ziel at the contact below.
Lloyd Ziel
Public Information Officer | Communications and Public Affairs
American Red Cross
Southern Nevada Chapter
1771 E. Flamingo Rd. Suite 206-B
Las Vegas, NV 89119
702-232-6604 cl
702-369-3351 of
702-791-3372 fx