TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18679, 8 April 1924, Page 6

TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD.

OVER TWENTY VOLUNTEERS. THE CHEISTCHtJRCH APPEAL [Bt TELEGRAPH.OWN CORRESPONDENT. J CHRISTCHTTBCjtC. Monday. There has been a very good response to the recent advertisement of the North Canterbury Hospital Board, asking for volunteers for blood transfusion. Dr. A. B. Pearson, who is in charge of the bacteriological department at the hospital, states that upwards of 20 people, the majority of them young men, have offered themselves. Their blood has been tested for general healthiness and absence of communicable disease, and later it will be tested as' to grouping. There are four blood groups, Dr. Peareon " explained, and in blood transfusion the groups must correspond. No. 2 was the most common. Number 4 was a -universal group—that was, Number 4 blood could be transmitted to anyone. Numbers 1 and 3 were scarce. There were a considerable number of persons in Number 4 and Number 2 already available, and the response had been very satisfactory, all the subjects being young and healthy.

A fee of £2 & was payable for' each, operation, but many had offered their Bti vices free of charge*. In the past, when blood transfusion wis necessary, members of the hospital staff or near relatives had given thejr biood, but this arrangement had its disadvantages. The blood of those on the stuff had been tested, but it was obvious that they could not always be expected to volunteer for transfusion. With relatives the disadvantage was that their blood had to be'tested before tie operation, thus involving a waste of time. Severe cases of anemia and accident in which loss of blood occurred were two of the cases in which blood transfusion was valuable, and. by having a number of per sons ready to give their blood it was; hoped to achieve better results than had been the case when drugs were used. There were a. number of patients in the hospital at present requiring blood transfusion. The operation itself was not. very : serious. About three-quarters of a pint was usually taken at one time, a quantity that could be compensated for in a few days without perceptible on the loser. The operation was almost painless, but transfusion could not be repeated with the same giver of blood at intervals of less than three weeks.