BLOOD TRANSFUSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20341, 23 August 1929, Page 12

BLOOD TRANSFUSION.

HOSPITAL WANTS DONORS. HEALTHY YOUNG MEN NEEDED. Young men in good health are being invited by the Auckland Hospital authorities to oiler themselves for blood transfusion purposes. A number of donors aro always kept on tho hospital's list, but owing to tho heavy demands made in recent weeks by an unusually large number of accident cases, it is deemed advisable to add to the list in order to meet possible emergencies.

Although a proportion of donors offer to sacrifice their blood gratuitously, being actuated by philanthropic motives, it is customary to remunerate them at the rate of two guineas an operation. On offering himself to the authorities, the subject is required to submit a sample of his blood for examination, and it is tested in the hospital laboratory for, its white corpuscle content. The blood of different subjects is not always compatible with that of the patient who needs it, and great care is taken to classify subjects according to the requirements of different patients. Beyond a tired feeling, which does not last long, no aftereffects aro suffered by tho donor. Robust people, indeed, subject to high blood pressure, often obtain physical benefit from the loss of a certain amount of the life fluid, and a healthy young man can part with any amount up to a litre of blood without experiencing anything more serious than a passing faintness.

There seems to bo little limit to the drain imposed upon certain full-blooded subjects. One man, who has given his blood to the Auckland Hospital for many years past, complains of no ill-effocts, although tho quantity of blood taken from him now runs into scores of gallons. On tho contrary, ho professes to obtain considerable benefit from tho process. Blood transfusion is commonly employed in accident cases in which the victim has suffered serious loss of blood and in cases of pernicious anaemia. In tho latter instance it is not so much a means of effecting a euro as of prolonging life. Transfusion is also of value in combating tho shock following soverc surgical operations or injury and in the treatment of certain diseased conditions in which the patient's blood is deficient .in its power of coagulation.