ST. JOHN AMBULANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 121, 24 May 1937, Page 16

ST. JOHN AMBULANCE

BLOOD TRANSFUSION SERVICE

The work of the Wellington Centre of the St. John Ambulance Association is reviewed in the annual report for the year ended March 31, 1937. During the year the centre held and examined 24 first-aid classes, 17 homenursing classes, 15 preliminary first-aid classes, 4 preliminary home-nursing classes, 2 preliminary hygiene classes, and 2 cooking classes. The number of candidates was 689. The annual report of the Wellington Blood Transfusion Service states that during the past year the number of | calls increased by approximately 25 per cent., whereas the membership increased by only 10£ per cent, during the same period, which served to illustrate the urgent need of increasing the membership of the service to enable it to cope with the ever-increasing necessity of having to respond too frequently to calls upon them. The quantity of blood drawn from each donor ranged from soz to 20oz, the average for the total 201 calls being. 15oz from each donor, or equivalent to 19.} gallons, or, expressed in another way, it represented the combined blood content of 13 healthy adults. "The need of educational work to dispel the fallacies entertained respecting the alleged danger and harmfulness to the donors, continues to exist," the report states. "The impression seems to be widespread that the operation of transfusion necessitates the circulation and inter-mixing of the blood of the patient with that of the donor. The committee wish to emphasise that this view is quite erroneous, as the blood of the patient never comes in contact with the donor. The method actually consists of two separate and distinct operations, the first being (a) the taking of the blood from the donor, and the second (b) vthe giving of the blood to the patient." During the year 201 calls were received for donors.