NEWGEN-L Archives

From: "Sally Pavia" <>
Subject: Black History Month .. Charles Drew - The Blood Bank
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 05:58:07 -0700

Charles Drew - The Blood Bank
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldrew.htm

Charles Drew (1904-1950) was born on June 3, 1904 in Washington, D.C.
Charles Drew excelled in academics and sports during his graduate studies at
Amherst College in Massachusetts. Charles Drew was also a honor student at
McGill University Medical School in Montreal, where he specialized in
physiological anatomy.

Charles Drew researched blood plasma and transfusions in New York City. It
was during his work at Columbia University where he made his discoveries
relating to the preservation of blood. By separating the liquid red blood
cells from the near solid plasma and freezing the two separately, he found
that blood could be preserved and reconstituted at a later date.

Charles Drew's system for the storing of blood plasma (blood bank)
revolutionized the medical profession. Dr. Drew also established the
American Red Cross blood bank, of which he was the first director, and he
organized the world's first blood bank drive, nicknamed "Blood for Britain".
His official title for the blood drive was Medical Director of the first
Plasma Division for Blood Transfusion, supplying blood plasma to the British
during World War II. The British military used his process extensively
during World War II, establishing mobile blood banks to aid in the treatment
of wounded soldiers at the front lines. In 1941, the American Red Cross
decided to set up blood donor stations to collect plasma for the U.S. armed
forces.

After the war, Charles Drew took up the Chair of Surgery at Howard
University, Washington, D.C. He received the Spingarn Medal in 1944 for his
contributions to medical science. Charles Drew died at the early age of 46
from injuries suffered in a car accident in North Carolina.

Dr. Charles Drew .. http://shorl.com/halabrofrifrise
This is the biography of Dr. Charles Drew and his pioneering research into
blood plasma preservation and creator of the first blood bank in Britain,
told against a history of the black civil rights movement in America.

Some interesting highlights in Dr Drew's life .

1938: Drew was granted a research fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation,
and spent two years at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, (attached to Columbia
University,) New York. It was here that he did research into the
preservation of blood, and developed a technique for the long term
preservation of blood plasma, which he found could be kept for longer than
'whole blood'. During this time he was also supervisor of the blood plasma
division of the Blood Transfusion Association of New York City.

1939: Drew was asked by the British Government to establish a military blood
bank program and collect blood for the British Army, in preparation for the
Second World War. It was here that preserved blood plasma was used on the
battlefield for the first time. The system worked so well, that the British
asked him to initiate the world's first mass blood bank project.

1940: Received a Doctor of Science in Medicine degree from Columbia, for his
dissertation on "Banked Blood: A Study in Preservation.". He was the first
black person in America to receive this degree.

1941: Drew resigns his position of Director of the AMRC blood bank after the
War Dept send out a directive stating that blood taken from White donors
should not be mixed with blood taken from Black donors. He called this a
stupid blunder and said "the blood of individual human beings may differ by
blood groupings, but there is absolutely no scientific basis to indicate any
difference in human blood from race to race." He returned to Howard
University Medical school to teach surgery.

1950: On April 1st, Drew was involved in a car accident, whilst on a trip to
a medical meeting at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

There is a common belief that he died because the nearby hospital refused to
admit him, due to his colour, thus denying him the blood that he needed to
survive. Contemporary sources state that he received prompt medical
attention (in part, from the other doctors who were in the car with him) and
was freely admitted to the nearby mixed-race (segregated) hospital, but died
soon after from the massive injuries he sustained from the accident.


Sally Rolls Pavia

"Don't let yesterday use up too much of today."
.. Cherokee Proverb
List Owner:
Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES
"All incoming and outgoing email checked by Norton Anti-Virus"

This thread:

• Black History Month .. Charles Drew - The Blood Bank by "Sally Pavia" <>