BLOOD TRANSFUSION

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 July 1946, Page 2

BLOOD TRANSFUSION

PROPOSAL FOR SOCIETY IN GREYMOUTH PURPOSE OF SERVICE In view of the proposal to form a Blood Transfusion Society in Greymouth, a series of authoritative articles on the subject has been made available for publication in the Evening Star. The first is printed below. I. The idea that the blood of an animal or of another human being could be used to revive the injured and sick is a very ancient one. In Roman times use was made of the blood of dogs and cats, and in the Middle Ages that of cattle was tried. These early experiments were generally disastrous, the patients 1 surviving being those to whom so little blood was given that they were able to overcome its ill-effects. The problem was attacked more vigorously in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and early discoveries of the ways of preventing the clotting of blood allowed its transference from person to person. But disasters and death were all too frequent. It was not until about 50 years ago that the discovery was made that the troubles were caused by a clotting of the given blood inside the vessels of the patient. This clotting or more correctly agglutination of the blood was found to be due to a reaction between the red cells given and substances already present in the patient’s blood. It was then found that there were two types of agglutinating or clotting-substance in both the red cells and the liquid (plasma) of blood, and that certain combinations of these substances in mixed bloods would produce the agglutination and others would not. By determining the substances present in a patient’s blood and in that of a prospective giver, we were then able, to predict whether or not a reaction would occur when the bloods mixed. If no reaction was predicted, the donor was “compatible” and would give blood to the patient without any trouble. Blood Grouping System. Thus arose the system of blood grouping, classifying bloods according to what combination of agglutinating substances were present. There are four such main classes or “groups.” In general, a patient can always safely receive his own blood type. There is also a group which contains no agglutinating substance in its cells and can therefore be given to any patient. These are the so-called “universal donors.”

In practice, it is well to be doubly safe. This is assured by cross-test-ing the donors’ blood cells with some of the patient’s plasma, tiny drops of each being mixed and observed. Absence of clotting assures safety in giving that particular donor’s blood to that particular patient. With the discovery that patients could safely be given human blood, there came a great step forward in the treatment of bad accidents, severe operation cases, the very old and very ill, and the patients with many sorts of blood disease. Blood transfusion was found of supreme value, and even in the last lo' years its use has probably trebled the world over. The recent war showed for the first time the tremendous saving in life and limb that came of having ample blood to hand for transfusions. The death rate from many serious wounds was halved, by the free use of blood alone. Enormous quantities were sometimes used in the field; one patient received 26 pints of blood in a few hours, recovering.

Increasing Demand.

Tn civil life the demand for blood is steady and increasing. As improved anaesthetics and surgical methods make successful operations possible on older, younger, and frailer people, so grows the need for blood transfusion to help these people stand operations and recover smoothly from them.

In civil surgery blood has found many uses: to prepare a very ill patient for operative treatment; to combat shock of accident; operations, childbirth or burns; to speed the convalescence and help the resistance to infection of those worn out by prolonged illnesses; finally, to treat certain anaemias which do not otherwise respond. We now know that if blood lost is promptly and. adequately replaced, patients do not get shocked, and hence recover much more quickly. For every patient whose life is directly and definitely saved by a transfusion of blood, there are two or three who would probably have recovered in time but who have been saved weeks or months of suffering and loss of earning capacity, because they had adequate blood transfusion. A healthy person does not miss a pint of blood, a sick one knows the miracle that it can work.