The Blood Business

A shot of blood in the arm may save a life, but a transfusion of the wrong kind of blood can kill as surely as a shot through the head. Doctors cannot estimate how many lives are saved by the 5,000,000 pints of blood that flow each year into the veins of about 2,500,000 U.S. patients; but they believe transfusion accidents cause 3,000 deaths a year.

At an average charge of $25 a pint, the blood business is big business, and in most of the U.S. it has always been a bloody mess. In New York City there are 158 hospitals and other outfits--from the altruistic to the crassly commercial --that collect and handle blood with a bewildering variety of methods for typing, preserving and storing.

Because of misgivings, one first-class hospital may refuse to use blood collected by another with equally high but different standards. After 21 days, blood is too stale to be used whole, though its plasma can still be extracted: in New York gallons of precious blood are discarded after 21 days, but some outdated blood that should have gone down the drain goes into patients instead.

No Bums. Last week the new Community Blood Council of Greater New York announced that such chaos should end within a year. New York, where more than half the blood transfused now comes from donors who get paid for it, will emulate Seattle (which has never paid donors) and Milwaukee (which rarely pays any) by giving a citywide blood center a monopoly of the blood traffic. All the major organizations concerned have agreed to join in. The American Red Cross and the local association of blood banks, long at loggerheads, are cooperating. Only the blood-money boys are going to be squeezed out.

The New York center will keep a running inventory of all blood available, classified by types (A, B, AB, and O), by various subtypes, and by Rh factor--a service that should save a lot of needless nonsense. Recently, New York Hospital sent to Boston for a pint of raretype blood, Metropolitan Hospital sent to Milwaukee for another, and Presbyterian Hospital sent to England. All three types were on hand in the city, though none knew where to find it.

The center will also keep a master list of donors and a special list of donors of the rare blood types most likely to be needed in emergencies. No donor will be paid. By cutting out the professional donors, many of whom have been Bowery bums, the center hopes to cut the serum hepatitis rate from transfusions by 85%.

Pint for Pint. All too often, the gratitude of patient and family for what may have been a life-saving transfusion is obscured by months of wrangling with the hospital over payment, at as much as $60 a pint, or replacement, at a rate up to three pints for one. Through the new center, any member of a blood credit program or his kin can wipe out a blood debt on a straight pint-for-pint basis. For those who have to pay, the top price is estimated at $25.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.