Four Pints of Blood

Blood from more than 8,000 volunteers poured into Red Cross Blood Donor Centers last week--and 2,000 lives that could not have been saved in World War I had a chance of being saved in World War II. For science has discovered how to store plasma, the life-giving liquid part of the blood: one pint of blood makes a pint of the plasma solution; four pints of plasma may mean the difference between life and death.

The technique of mass blood collection was first tested in Manhattan, which started over a year ago asking for blood to be shipped to England. Profiting by the experience gained in nine Manhattan hospitals, 13 other cities (Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Rochester, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Boston) are now blood-collection centers for the U.S. armed forces. Two other cities--Cincinnati and Chicago--were getting collection centers ready last week, organizing doctors, volunteer workers.

Before Pearl Harbor, the Red Cross goal was 200,000 plasma units (a pint-plus of plasma is a unit). Now it wants a million. Average cost to the Red Cross of collecting and storing it (without processing fees) is $2.25 a unit.

Oxygen Speed-Up. Plasma is the fluid part of the blood in which the red and white corpuscles and the clotting platelets are suspended. During World War I, when thousands of lives were lost for lack of fresh whole blood for transfusion, medical men thought most of the deaths were caused by the loss of red blood corpuscles. Later they discovered that the loss of the blood fluid was more serious, that when a patient suffers shock from burns, wounds or hemorrhage, the sluggish blood stream prevents the red corpuscles, even when plenty are left, from taking enough oxygen to the body cells.

Plasma transfusions supply a satisfactory fluid for speeding up the oxygen traffic, draw fluid that has leaked into the tissues back into the circulation. Another advantage: all people have the same kind of plasma so that plasma transfusions can be given to anybody regardless of blood type.*

Blood collected for the Red Cross plasma reservoir is refrigerated at 4DEG C. (39DEG Fahrenheit), shipped to laboratories where the plasma is separated from the blood cells in a centrifuge, a whirling machine that works like a cream separator. A technique very recently developed dries the plasma like powdered milk for storage as a pale yellow powder; this powder is made available for quick transfusion by mixing with sterile, triple-distilled water. The doctors in charge of the program estimate that stores of dried plasma will not deteriorate for at least five years.

Pint Out. Pint In. Some 45,000 men & women volunteers have already taken Red Cross tests for blood. The technique, developed under the guidance of the National Research Council, is simple, painless. A nurse takes temperature, pulse, blood pressure, a small sample of the blood. She asks whether the donor has a cold, or has ever had tuberculosis or malaria, fainting spells or fits. If the answer is no, if the donor looks healthy and the blood sample contains enough hemoglobin (80%), a doctor anesthetizes the inner arm below the elbow and the collecting needle slides painlessly into a vein.

In 15 minutes the volunteer has parted with about a pint of blood. Afterwards he rests, gets a pint of fluid-milk, fruit juice, coffee or tea. Also obtainable but optional is a shot of whiskey. Some donors want to give more than once. The Red Cross will accept five bloodlettings a year from any one donor, at intervals of eight weeks or longer.

*Until last week the Red Cross, acting on orders from the services, refused to accept blood from Negro donors, although there is no physiologic difference between Negro and white blood plasma. Negroes, proud of Dr. Charles R. Drew who headed the Blood for Britain service, protested. Negro blood donations are now accepted, but the plasma will be segregated for exclusive use of Negro casualties.

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