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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