2 keep them alive. The first human transfusion occurred in 1667 when Jean-Basptiste Denis in france and Richard Lower transferred blood from a sheep to a human. (“www.BloodBanking.com”)Later came along that there were blood groups, not everyones blood is the same. Blood also doesn’t live long outside of an organism. In 1901, Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian physician, became the most important person in the field of blood transfusion, when she had finally documented the the human blood types: A, B, and O. In 1902, A. Decastrello and A. Sturli found a fourth blood type: AB. In 1908 A French surgeon by the name of Alexis Carrel developed a way that could prevent blood clotting. The procedure required joining an artery in the donor, directly to a vain in the recipient with the surgical sutures. In 1914, Sodium citrate was put in place to preserve blood for longer periods of time. In 1925, Karl Landsteiner, while working in NewYork, discovered three more blood groups: M, N, and P. In 1940, Charles Drew was the first developer of the Blood Bank. Being that he created a place to store blood plasma, he revolutionized the medical profession. He first used the blood banks on the battlefields in Europe and in the Pacific during World War ll. He created the American Red Cross Blood Bank as well. He organized the Blood For Britain project in 1940, which was the worlds first blood bank project. Drew received a cablegram that requested him to collect from New York hospitals, 5,000 glass containers of dried plasma for transfusion, and the same amount three weeks later, for the Blood For Britain project. He had to transfer his test tube methods into a successful mass production technique. Charles Drew had been asked by the Government that the Red Cross
3 would establish a pilot program similar to the Blood For Britain project but smaller than that, for the U.S. Army and Navy. These two projects lasted seven months. By 1943 J.F. Loutit and P.L.
Mollison introduced acid citrate dextrose solution, which reduced volumes of anticoagulant like sodium citrate, and transfusions of greater volumes were then able to be permitted and blood storage lasted longer. In 1950, at age 45, Dr. Charles Drew had died in a car accident while driving to a science conference. “I am blood and blood is me.” (Charles Richard Drew) So many lives had been saved because of his Blood Bank Methods. (www.PPTA.comThe reasons blood has saved peoples lives is because Red blood cells carry oxygen from the lungs to cells. White blood cells help prevent disease and strengthen immunity. Blood platelets make the blood clot so that