"BLOOD BANK"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 19, 22 July 1939, Page 10

"BLOOD BANK"

PATIENT'S LIFE SAVED

SYDNEY'S FIRST WITH-

DRAWAL

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, July 14. Sydney's "blood bank" has had its first emergency withdrawal, and has been instrumental in saving the life of a woman desperately ill 70 miles from the city. The •'bank" was established by blood taken from donors and kept in a refrigerator. "The urgent call from the Katoomba Hospital for a pint of a special type of blood came at 9.55 at night," said Dr. Burton Bradley, who is in charge of the "blood bank." "Within eight minutes the blood was on its way to Katoomba in a fcaxi-cab, and it ari rived there shortly after midnight. i "This is the first withdrawal from j the 'bank,' and it shows what can | "be done. Katoomba has no blood I donors, and it is probable that this woman would have died if our "blood bank' had not been in operation." While the pint of blood was being j rushed in the taxi to Katoomba, doc- | j tors and nurses were fighting to keep the woman alive long enough to (allow the transfusion to take place, j The transfusion was made about three j hours after the blood had left Sydney.' i Doctors and nurses stood by in case | another transfusion was necessary, but the patient's condition' greatly improved.