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Hero of the Month

Dr. Charles Drew

It’s impossible to say how many millions of people would have lost their lives if it weren’t for Dr. Charles Drew. He revolutionized the blood banking industry and is responsible for discovering and developing many blood banking techniques that are still used today.

He was one of the pioneers that basically discovered that you could remove the plasma, the liquid portion of the blood and actually freeze dry plasma and store those proteins for prolonged periods of time and really it was a breakthrough technology in being able to provide some type of a transfusion support team during war efforts.

Before this discovery, red blood cells could not be stored for more than a couple of days because of the rapid break down of red blood cells. Dr. Drew established the first blood bank in England as well as a blood bank at Columbia University in New York. He also organized a system of volunteer blood donors and centralized the collection of donated blood where he processed the blood and separated out the plasma.

Dr. Drew’s life was cut short on April 1, 1950 when he was involved in a car accident that left him in need of blood. Dr. Drew passed away while working to save lives.

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