THE FIRST SUCCESSFUL NON- DIRECT BLOOD TRANSFUSION IS CARRIED OUT.
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| BLOOD TRANSFUSION |
Friday, 27 March 1914
On 27 March 1914, Belgian doctor Albert Huston conducted the first non-direct transfusion, using sodium citrate
as an anticoagulant. Initially, blood transfusions needed to be made directly
from the donor to the receiver before coagulation occurred. However, in the
1910s, it was discovered that adding anticoagulant to blood and refrigerating
it allowed for longer storage times, which led to the establishment of blood
banks.
The first recorded attempt of a
blood transfusion was described by the 15th-century chronicler Stefano
Infessura. In 1492, Infessura noted that the blood of three boys was given to
Pope Innocent VIII, who had fallen into a coma. Following orders from a
physician, the blood was transferred to the pontiff through the mouth, as the
concept of intravenous circulation had not yet been discovered. The three young
blood donors, all ten years old, had undertaken this experiment after being
promised a ducat each. Unfortunately, the Pope and all three boys died.
After the discovery of intravenous
circulation by William Harvey in 1628, more sophisticated research into blood
transfusion began in the 17th century, and successful transfusion experiments
were conducted on animals. However, transfusion attempts on humans continued to
fail.
The first fully-documented human
blood transfusion occurred on 15 June 1667, administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste
Denis. A physician to King Louis XIV of France, Denis transfused the blood of a
sheep into a 15-year old boy. Although the boy recovered, the transfusion was
not entirely successful and the boy died at a later stage.
It was only in the 19th century that
the existence of different blood types was discovered, and therefore the reason
for past transfusion failures. It was found that a mixture of blood from the
donor and the receiver was more successful in a transfusion.
Dr. James Blundell, a British
obstetrician, performed the first successful human blood transfusion of human
blood in 1818, which was used to treat a postpartum haemorrhage. The patient's
husband was the donor, and gave four ounces of blood from his arm to his wife.
From 1825 to 1830, Blundell conducted 10 blood transfusions, of which five were
successful. Blundell went on to publish his results and invent several
instruments to use in blood transfusions.
On 1 January 1916, the first blood
transfusion that utilized blood that had been stored and refrigerated was
performed by Oswald Hope Robertson, a medical researcher and U.S. Army officer.
Robertson is generally credited with establishing the first blood bank while
serving in France during world war I.
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