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Show You and Your Health By MORRIS FISHBEIN Miter, Jewaal of the Amricn Medicel Auocistioa, sad el Hygele, tfee KhU WUgniiw In discussing blood ailments, I have mentioned the importance of blood transfusion aa a means of treatment The use of this method haa become well estab- liehed throughout the world. In fact, so important is transfusion now that Russians have developed devel-oped a method of taking blood out of the bodies of normal persons per-sons who have died In accidents, and preserving this blood in Jars for use in transfusions in hospitals hospi-tals throughout the country. Briefly, blood transfusion is the addition of a part of the blood of a healthy person to the circulation circula-tion of a person who needs that blood. There are msjny different reasons rea-sons for trarunusien. It is valuable val-uable following any aevera hemorrhage hem-orrhage such as may occur after an accident or a surgical operation. opera-tion. It apparently is valuable following follow-ing sever bleeding in cases of purpura or hemophilia, for replacing re-placing certain single elements of the blood that are missing. It is valuable, In certain types of infection, in-fection, for supplying anti-substances which are available in the blood. Blood transfusion Is one of the most dramatic procedures known to modern medicine. The idea first K-waa-euaaeeteel and tried in lOT by a French doctor. Little waa done with the method, however, until it was revived in London between 1818 and 1824 and again In Germany' between 1860 and 1880. Unfortunately, in these early attempts there were occasional sudden fatalities. Some time later it waa found that failure in the early attempts was due to the presence in the blood of one person per-son of factors which reacted unfavorably un-favorably on the blood of another. In such cases blood transfusion would be followed by a sudden ' clotting or by a sudden breaking up of the blood elements, which resulted seriously. As a reault of modern investigations, investiga-tions, these factors have been recognized rec-ognized and standardized. It la now possible to test the blood of the donor and that of the patient to determine whether the transfusion trans-fusion may be given safely. There are various ways of transfusing trans-fusing blood. In earlier days surgeons sur-geons sewed the vein of one person per-son to the artery of another and permitted the blood to run from the artery into the vein. Then systems sys-tems were developed for connecting connect-ing the vein of one person to the artery of another by means of a glass or rubber tube. A more recent and simple method meth-od is to draw the blood out of the vein of one person with a specially special-ly prepared needle and syringe, and then to transfer the syringe to a needle put into the vein of the person who is to receive the blood. The blood then Is injected slowly into the body of the recipient. Mechanical devices have been developed whereby the blood runs out of the donor's vein into a receptacle; re-ceptacle; then, by turning a stopcock, stop-cock, it is permitted to run out of this receptacle into the vein of the person receiving the blood. Practically all these methods' still are used in occasional cases, but today the simpler methods are used most widely. |