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Show Doctors Store Blood Plasma For Emergency Program Prepares to Aid Victims of Disasters On Short Notice. (Releaied by We item Newspaper Union.) NEW YORK, N. Y.-Large scale collection of blood plasma plas-ma by the American Red Cross for the United States navy and army will be the proving ground for the development devel-opment of a nation-wide net- work of hospital blood banks, Dr. Charles R. Drew, medical medi-cal supervisor of the plasma division of the Blood Transfusion Trans-fusion association, predicts. He says this program was instituted in-stituted to acquire stores of dried and liquid plasma both for the armed forces and for use in disasters involving civilians. Plasma can be substituted sub-stituted for whole blood in transfusions for treatment of many cases of injury, shock and illness. "In case of need, the program could be expanded rapidly to reach thousands of donors In major cities," cit-ies," Dr. Drew explains. "As the technique and facilities for blood and plasma collection Improve, the use of plasma, or serum, undoubtedly will increase. Plasma banks and blood banks are being more and more widely used in hospitals throughout the country." Stored In Philadelphia. "At the present time, blood for the national defense plasma program is being collected" only in New York City," Dr. Drew continued. "The blood is being sent to laboratories in Philadelphia for processing into dried plasma." Dried plasma is easier eas-ier to store and transport than the liquid form. It is less susceptible to Infection because the moisture necessary to most bacteria life has been withdrawn. Dried plasma is restored to liquid form before it is administered in transfusions. Both liquid and dried plasma may be stored for long periods of time, even several years. Neither form requires "typing" to an Individual patient's requirements when drawn from a supply made up of plasma from many Individuals. The Presbyterian hospital blood bank is representative of modern blood plasma banks. The "vault" is a special Westinghouse refrigerator, developed by the Times Appliance company, to meet the association's requirements. "A constant evenly distributed temperature and absence ab-sence of vibration is essential in the plasma technique," Dr. Drew said. Maintain Even Temperature. Special controls of the Presbyterian Presbyteri-an blood bank refrigerator maintain the temperature within one-tenth of one degree of 39.7 degrees Fahrenheit, Fahren-heit, the ideal cold point for blood and plasma storage. The heart of the blood bank is the pooling room, a glassed-in cubicle In which the plasma is drawn off after the corpuscles have settled. The Presbyterian hospital pooling room is bathed In the bacteria-destroying rays of three Sterilamps. One Sterllamp casts a curtain of ultraviolet rays between technicians and containers and tubes with which they draw off and bottle the plasma. Specifications of this refrigeration, Sterilamp and air conditioning equipment for blood banks, have been recommended to the National Research Council which is acting at the request of the navy, army and public health administration. r? .rf f ; -y , 1 A trained technician Is shown drawing plasma from a bottle of blood. Ultraviolet rays from three Sterilamps protect the blood plasma from bacteria in the air during the process. |
