TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 834, 5 January 1883, Page 3

TRANSFUSION OF BLOOD.

A touching instance of maternal affection, says Life, is recorded in a recent number of a medical journal by a Manchester physician. Dr William Walter, of that city, was sent to attend a young Ldy who was dying from the effects of severe haemorrhage. When the doctor arrived his patient was lying still and unconscious; her face and lips were blanched, her eyes had assumed that dull and lifekss appearance which only death, or its near approach, can produce. Respiration was scarcely perceivable, and the pulse could only at intervals be felt. Dr Walter, whose experience of such cases is great, knew at once that there was only one chance for her—namely, transfusion of blood from the arm of a healthy person to the blanched limbs of the moribund. The lady’s husband cheerfully consented to give his blood to save his wife, but the mother would not hear of it. Although she knew the risk attendingthe operation, she begged to be the donor. Doctors are not all made of cast-iron, and this one could not resist the entreaties of that loving mother, who offered her life’s bluod at any cost to save her darling child. While Dr Walker was performing venesection on the mother in an adjoining room, and before he had time to collect more than four ounces of blood, his assistant acquainted him that his patient was apparently lifeless. Who can depict the agony endured by husband and mother during the next 15 minutes! The physician hurried to the bedroom to prepare the lady’s arm for the reception of thablood. He found a vein—not without great difficulty—isolated it from the surrounding tissues, made a small opening in its walls, and inserted the silver nozzle of the injecting apparatus. In from ten to twelve minutes all the blood was injected, and almost immediately respiration became distinctly visible and audible; the pulse returned to the wrist, and in the course of a quarter of an hour the insensibility gave way to consciousness,and she was able to recognise her friends. Her convalescence was steady. and uncomplicated and within a month she was able to walk out of doors.