BLOOD TRANSFUSION

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 58, 10 March 1938, Page 15

BLOOD TRANSFUSION

WELLINGTON SERVICE

CALLS IN PAST YEAR

Same interesting statistics bearing on the work, performed unobtrusively, by the Wellington branch of the National Blood Transfusion Service of New Zea-J land is contained in the report for the year ended January 31 last. There is also a letter from Dr. A., R.1 Thorne,| superintendent of the Wellington Hospital, paying high tribute to the efficient service rendered by the society.

The report points -out that in recent years blood transfusion, has come to be recognised as a surgical practice of great importance. It has been discovered that in certain cases of hemorrhage and pernicious anaemia, the simple operation of blood transfusion is often effective in saving life, and further, that a patient too weak to stand a ne^ v-sary operation may be sufficiently sh^nfthened by an infusion of new blood to undergo it with perfect safety. The service represents an attempt to organise a permanent number ,oi bloodsdonors from which every case of real urgency can be/met. , During the past year the number .of calls on the service increased by approximately 9 per cent, and the membership by 75 per cent., proving beyond doubt, the report continues,-that the repeated appeals for more members has met with a most encouraging response, i The report thanks Captain C. J.-Ddff, N.Z.S:c, who with the approval of the Chief of the General Staff of the New Zealand Military Forces, materially assisted in enrolling 23 members of the Permanent Forces stationed at Fort Dorset; also to the manager of the Hutt Railway Workshops, superintendent and members of the Hutt Valley Railway Ambulance Division, and Mr. M. S. Nestor, of the Public Service Association. Appreciation is also expressed of the assistance.given by others in various" directions. The report states that the quantity of blood drawn from each donor ranged from 5 to 20 ounces, the average for the total of 219 calls being 16J ounces from each donor, equivalent to 27 7-8 gallons, or, -expressed in another way, it represented,the combined blood content of 25 healthy adults. In six years, from 1932, 813 calls hay6 been'received for donors. As a result of a campaign for new members inaugurated' last October, 110 new members have enrolled. Of the "219 calls received during the twelve: months, 97 were to males and 122 to females.- The record number of calls in a day was on April 13 last, when six were received; the record, number of calls in ra week, twelve, for the week ended March 4, 1937; and the record number of calls in a month, 36, in March, 1937.- The following figures show so-far as can be gathered from the available data the effect of the transfusions in the 219 cases attended:—Good, very good, excellent, 106 48.4 per cent.; satisfactory, 67— 30 6 per cent; temporary improvement, but followed by death;-25—4.4 per cent; no improvement 16—11.4 per cent; called and not used, 5—7.3 per cent.