BLOOD TRANSFUSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 October 1939, Page 9

BLOOD TRANSFUSION

SERVICE IN MASTERTON ADDRESS BY MR C. MEACHEN. STRONG COMMITTEE FORMED. The deputy Mayor, Mr W. White, presided over a meeting held in the Municipal Buildings last night, the object of which was to form a blood transfusion service in Masterton. Mr C. Meachen, secretary of the Wellington St. John Ambulance Brigade, delivered an interesting address on blood transfusion giving the meeting some useful information and outlining the progress made during the last 30 years. At the conclusion of Mr Meachen’s address the following committee was set up: Drs. Archer Hosking (chairman), O’Connor and Prior, Mrs D. K. McKenzie and Mrs Davenport (secretary) . “During the nineteenth century attempts were made to transfer blood from one person to another by means of a syringe,” said Mr Meachen. “In 1857 the case of a woman was reported, who was in a very weak state as the result, it was believed, of feeding a pair of twins for too long a period. She was given twelve ounces of blood from another healthy woman. Soon afterwards she had a shivering attack, and this was followed by a state of reaction and excitement, during which she sang a hymn in a loud voice. She then rapidly recovered. At the beginning of the present century blood transfusion was performed by actually joining the artery in one person’s wrist to a vein in another’s arm; but the operation often failed altogether, and if it were successful it was impossible to know how much blood had passed from one to the other. If the donor’s blood were received into a vessel it would, of course, very soon clot, and so could not be passed on to the patient. It was, therefore, necessary to find some substance, which, when mixed with blood would prevent it from clotting but would be harmless to the patient. It was only in 1914 that citrate of sodium was discovered to possess these properties, and this discovery came just in time for use during the Great War. The War was the greatest experiment in blood letting that has ever been made, and the lives of a great number of our soldiers were saved solely by the transfusion into theii’ veins of some of the blood of their more fortunate companions. Knowledge of blood transfusion gained during the War has been turned to very good account during times of peace, for there are many occasions in civil life when transfusion is of the greatest value.”

“It is necessary to explain why a blood transfusion service must be carefully organised,” stated Mr Meachen. “In every European community the individuals can be divided into four different groups, according to the properties of their blood. These properties have no relation to character or to disease, but are inborn qualities as much as are the colour of the hair or eyes. Nevertheless the blood of different groups cannot be mixed indiscriminately, and a ’patient may die if he is given blood belonging to an unsuitable group. The greatest care must, therefore, be used. Every prospective blood donor must be tested for his blood group, and this must be registered by the organisation. Obviously the donor must himself be free from any' diseases, such as malaria, which might be communicated by his blood. The interests of the donors are also to be safeguarded and certain stipulations‘as to technique are made before any institution is allowed to use the benefits of the transfusion service. No donor is used more than four times a year, though there are many recorded instances of men and women having given blood much oftener than this without ill effects.”