BABY HAS BLOOD CHANGED

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 July 1945, Page 6

BABY HAS BLOOD CHANGED

RARE DISEASE CURED BIRMINGHAM, May 20. By taking as much blood as possible from a newly-born infant and replacing it with blood of a special nature, starting five minutes after birth and followed by daily transfusions for just over a week, a baby’s life was saved. The mother had given birth t othree previous children, none of whom survived. They had all been born yellow, which was sugegstive of a condition known as erythroblastosis foetalis. A war-time discovery has proved that this disease is due to a discrepancy between the paternal and maternal blood—the infant following the father’s grouping, with the result that the mother’s blood destroys that of the unborn infant.. •The mother ivas admitted to Solihull Hospital, and three weeks before the date of the confinement a Caesarian operation was performed, the date being fixed because the condition becomes more acute during the last weeks of pregnancy. Three weeks after birth the mother was discharged with her baby, a normal, inf ant which in six weeks weighed 10.11 b and. "was progressing normally.